Angel with a Shotgun
by Little.Miss.Chloe
Summary: Emerson Phillips had always been the type to help others. She didn't like to admit that she needed help and if she was going to do that the last person she would have asked was some dumb redneck who went by the name of Daryl. But when they met she didn't have a choice, he helped her without her asking. And the simple truth was they needed each other. Daryl/oc.
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: I do not own the Walking Dead, although I'm completely obsessed with it and wished I did. Emerson, however, I do own.

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This is my first attempt at writing about The Walking Dead, so please be nice.

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Prologue:

The argument had been going on since almost the day they met. It wasn't an anger filled argument that caused drama or tension, but rather a playful, teasing one they used to pass the time.

They argued over who found who, who saved who, who owed who more.

Daryl maintained that it had been he who found Emerson. He had been out hunting when he had caught onto her trail. He hadn't been too concerned at first until he noticed the blood. Then, figuring that she was a wounded animal he followed her trail. The way Daryl tells the story he found her in a tree, surrounded by Walkers and on the edge of death. He took care of the Walkers and then, maybe because he could hear Dale's moral voice in hs head he decided to save the girl.

Emerson tells the story a little differently. She doesn't deny that Daryl found her stuck in a tree surrounded by Walkers. She doesn't argue when Daryl says that her injuries were pretty bad. Where their stories differ is that the way Emerson tells it Daryl was th one who needed protection from the Walkers. And that if it weren't for her and her throwing knives the man would have died. Emerson swears that she would have been fine without Daryl's help, that she just needed to wait until the Walkers got distracted and wandered away and then she would be able to climb down from her tree, stitch herself up and head home.

The truth is somewhere in between the two stories. The truth is that Emerson would have been screwed if Daryl hadn't found her when he did. The truth is that Daryl wouldn't have been able to kill all the Walkers on his own - but neither would Emerson. The truth is that no matter how much they hated to admit it, Daryl and Emerson needed each other that day. And they would continue to need each other in the days to come (even if they wouldn't say it out loud).

The truth was that they found each other, they saved each other, and they both owed the other their life. That was the truth, whether or not they wanted to admit to it.

Sometimes Daryl wonders if while he was carrying the bleeding, practically passed out girl through the woods - if someone had told him she would cause him so much trouble, if he just would have left her in the woods as Walker bait.

The answer is an almost instant and resounding no.

Sometimes Emerson wonders if while Daryl was helping her kill the Walkers - if someone had told her how much trouble he would cause her, if she would have just let one of her hunting knives hit him in the head instead of a Walker.

The answer is the same almost instant and resounding no.

The simple truth was that Daryl Dixon and Emerson Phillips needed each other. And now that they found each other they probably always would.

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Author's Note:

And that's the end of the prologue. The real story happens in the next chapter.  
I hope you liked this though, that it caught your interest.  
If it did, review to let me know.  
I live for reviews.  
I'll see you back here soon.  
Hugs and kisses,  
Chloe Jane.


	2. Chapter One

Disclaimer: I do not own the Walking Dead, although I'm completely obsessed with it and wished I did. Emerson, however, I do own.

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Chapter One:

They say that your life flashes in front of your eyes when you're about to die. Emerson Phillips had been in enough near-death experiences to know that the saying was complete bullshit. It wasn't that your life flashed before your eyes, but rather the faces of all the people you were going to be leaving behind. The world had gone to shit, she was in the middle of, for lack of a better word, an apocalypse, the list of people she was going to leave behind had gotten smaller and smaller until there was only one face that flashed before her eyes when she realized she was not going to outrun the herd of spooks. Matty was the only thing she could think of, but that was enough for wasn't sure if it was adrenaline or simply the knowledge that Matt wouldn't survive without her, but she managed to speed up just enough that she had a head start on climbing the tree before the spooks got to her. She was determined, she was not going to die here, and definitely not at the hands of this group of spooks.

It was only once she had climbed high enough in the tree that she was out of reach of the herd that she realized the flaw in her plan. From her experience with spooks she knew that they had limited thinking capabilities. Very limited - they couldn't think, they acted on some primal instinct with only a few memories from their lives as humans. Spooks seemed to remember things like how doorknobs worked, they could open doors and they didn't travel far from where they had died or lived. They stayed with what they knew for the most part. Which made neighborhoods and towns some of the most dangerous places Emerson had ever been. But they would never be able to come up with a plan and work together to get her down from the tree. That was the good news. The bad news was that they had a one-track mind, they knew she was up in the tree and while they weren't aware they were being patient, they would last a lot longer than she would; especially with the knife wound in her stomach. She may have saved herself from being eaten alive, but she wasn't out of the woods yet.

Emerson laughed at that phrase - _out of the woods_ - of course she wasn't out of the woods yet, she lived in them now. She also laughed at her own stupidity. Sure, she had seven of her throwing knives in her pack, and from this height she knew she would be able to kill seven of the spooks. Emerson was deadly with those knives and she hardly ever missed. The problem was that there were more than seven spooks and she wouldn't be able to climb out of the tree to retrieve her knives, not when there were at least ten other spooks hanging out under the tree. The knives would barely make a dent in the herd. And then she'd be stuck up in the tree with no way to defend herself and a large cut to her ribs - she'd slowly bleed out. Matty would still be alone and in danger.

There was a tree that was fairly close to Emerson's tree. If she climbed up just a bit higher she might be able to jump from one tree to the next, and maybe she'd be able find another tree to jump to. If she did it quietly enough she might be able to do it without catching the attention of the spooks down below. She stood up carefully, trying not to tug too much on the wound on her ribs, she didn't need to tear it open anymore than it already was. She was about to start climbing when something caught her eye a couple of trees away from her. At first she thought that it was another spook, but his eyes were clear when he looked at her and very carefully raised a finger to his lips. She nodded and lowered himself back down onto the branch so that she could open her pack. If this idiot thought that he was going to save her she might as well help him out.

She watched him as he carefully lifted his crossbow off of his shoulder and leveled it so that he could get one of the spooks in his sights. He was dirty, and that was saying something coming from Emerson who hadn't had a bath in at least a week. It wasn't winter yet, but it was starting to get cold, she was surprised to see that the man was wearing a plaid shirt with cut off sleeves. How was he not freezing? He needed a haircut and maybe even a shave, but she could tell that underneath all the filth and the stubble that he had probably once been a very handsome man. She watched with shrewd eyes as he loaded an arrow into the crossbow and sent it flying into the head of one of the spooks.

They hadn't noticed him up until that point, but as soon as one of their own had fallen the spooks turned their heads wildly, looking for whoever had caused the disturbance. They found him quickly and they started rushing toward him, he was reloading his crossbow as quickly as he could, but it wasn't fast enough. Emerson reached into her pack and pulled out one of her hunting knives, just as one of the spooks was closing in on the man it fell to the ground with a knife sticking out of its head. He had just finished reloading the cross bow and he looked up at her, giving her a grim nod of thanks before shooting the arrow and beginning to rapidly reload again. Emerson threw another knife and landed it in the head of another spook before she realized that the crossbow took too long to reload. She wasn't sure if she'd be able to make it out of the tree without passing out so instead she took her third hunting knife and quickly began to saw at a medium sized tree branch. Once she had cut the branch from the tree she whistled to catch the man's attention and threw the branch at him.

He stared at it for a moment as if he wasn't sure what he was supposed to do with it before it clicked. He shouldered the crossbow again and swung the branch like a baseball bat, smashing in the spook's head before moving on to another one. The branch had been a good idea, despite the fact that there were so many spooks and it required a close contact kill. Between the man's skull smashing abilities and the remaining five throwing knives Emerson and the man managed to kill all of the spooks with relative ease, all things considered.

Once the man had killed the last one Emerson slumped back against the tree trunk, too tired to sit up straight anymore. She figured that once all the spooks had been killed the man would pack his stuff up and leave again. They hadn't made much noise when killing the spooks but herds of them tended to make people nervous. If a group of spooks had made it to a certain spot that simply meant that another herd of them could too. Emerson had noticed that it made people jumpy, they tried to leave areas that had been infested by herds as soon as they could. She had a feeling that this man would be no different. And then, only once he was gone - once she was sure that he wouldn't follow her, would she climb down from the tree and head back to the cabin.

She watched, trying to be patient as the man collected his arrows out of the heads of the dead spooks. He carefully wiped them off before putting them back in the quiver behind his back. She thought that he would leave then, but he didn't. He started pulling her knives out of the spooks she had killed and wiped those off as well. Emerson leaned forward about to yell at him for taking her weapons when he laid them down at the foot of the tree for her. With one final look at her, his blue eyes taking in the away her once white shirt stuck to her stomach, her blood coloring the shirt a dark red. He nodded once at her before turning around and heading back the way he had come. She waited about five minutes, to make sure he was really gone before she slowly started to climb down the tree.

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Daryl wasn't sure what had made him stop to help the girl in the tree. He had caught onto her trail about an hour ago, he planned to ignore the trail when he noticed all the blood. Thinking that it was the trail of a wounded animal, a big one by the looks of it. He followed the trail for a good fifteen minutes before he came upon the herd of Walkers. He was honestly surprised that they hadn't noticed him, the group had realized fairly quickly that the Walkers could smell them, the difference between the living and the dead. But the herd seemed indifferent to his presence, they were too focused on something high up in the tree. Daryl followed their almost vacant gazes and saw an injured girl sitting in the tree. He could have turned around, left as quickly and quietly as he had come, they'd still be watching her. But a voice in his head stopped him, he recognized the voice as belonging to Dale. _You can't just leave her_.

He shook his head, he had hardly ever listened to Dale when the old man was alive, why would he bother doing that now? But as he turned he realized that he couldn't leave the girl there. She was injured and obviously in trouble, but he couldn't leave her alone, much as he wanted to. He tried again to leave her, after they had killed all the Walkers but instead found himself collecting all of her throwing knives and cleaning them off, waiting for her to climb down from the tree. But she didn't. So he lay the knives down at the foot of the tree and left again. He had been walking for five minutes when he heard Dale's voice in his head again. _Turn back around, she'll die without you_.

So he turned around and quickly headed back to the tree and the herd of dead Walkers. He made it back quickly and he managed to make it back before the girl had made it to the bottom branch of the tree. She caught sight of him and stared at him with wide eyes. "Well come on then," he growled, nodding toward the ground. "Get yerself down here." The girl looked at him, her green eyes getting even wider and she shook her head. "No?" he asked, his tone almost mocking, "Ya just gonna stay up there till ya bleed out?"

The girl took a deep breath, her hands shook slightly so she balled them into fists, "I'm fine where I am thanks. You can just go on your way. I'm really none of your concern."

Daryl shook his head, that was where this girl was wrong. He didn't know why, wasn't even quite sure of when, but she had become his concern. He walked closer to the tree and held a hand out for her, silently offering to help her out of the tree. "It's gonna get dark soon," he warned. "Wouldn't want to get trapped out in the woods alone at night if I were you."

"No one asked your opinion," the girl muttered, glaring at him. "Look, I didn't ask for your help. I don't need it. You don't need to play Prince Charming or anything like that. Go."

Daryl looked at her again, silently shaking his head. And then he did something that surprised to two of them. He sat down at the base of a tree near hers, crossed his arms over his chest and stared at her. She raised her eyebrows at him as if to ask him what the hell he was doing. He shrugged. "The way I figure it yer coming down from the tree one way or another. Either yer coming down now or yer going to lose too much blood and pass out and fall outta the tree. the way I see it, climbing down now is the better option."

The girl stared at him for a moment as if she was trying to figure him out. He watched her as she shook her head and grabbed her pack, dropping it to the ground. "I'm Emerson," she said softly as she carefully climbed out of the tree. Daryl watched her silently as she packed up all of the knives save one, she carefully tucked that one in the back of her pants. "You got a name, Prince Charming?" she asked him after she had put her pack back on.

"Daryl," Daryl said with a nod.

Emerson looked at him and gingerly tucked a strand of her dirty red hair behind her ear, moving her right arm too much tugged on the wound on her ribs. "Well Daryl," she said with a nod. "Thank you for your help taking care of that herd. Thank you for forcing me to climb out of the tree. You go your way now, I'll go mine." She turned away from him then and walked the opposite way that Daryl had come. It was the long way back to the cabin, but she would have to take it, she needed to make sure Daryl didn't follow her back. She could feel his eyes on her and she tried not to let him know how weak she was, but after passing three trees she already felt winded and had to lean against one of them for support and rest.

Daryl was there in a second, wrapping a hard arm around her waist and holding her steady. She tried to push him away from her but the push only lasted a second, a moment before she was resting against him for support. Daryl shook his head, stupid woman didn't even realize how much help she needed until it was too late. He reached down, slipping his other arm under the back of her knees and turned around, carrying her in the opposite direction.

"No," the girl moaned, shaking her head and lifting up one of her hands so that she could slap him feebly on the chest. "We have to go back to the cabin," she paused for a moment, trying to catch her breath. "Safe there."

"I have a group," Daryl said in what he thought was a soothing tone. "It'll be safe don't need to go back to your cabin."

She struggled, turning in his grasp and wiggling until he had dropped her on the ground. "I need to," she said, her voice firmer. "I need to get Matt. Now I can do this without your help," she paused and swallowed, Daryl could tell it was taking a lot of effort for her to say what she was about to say, "but it would be easier with you." She leveled him with a harsh glare, "But if you try to take me back the way you came I will scream and draw every spook in the area over to us. Got that?"

Daryl stared at her for a moment, wondering if he should just leave the crazy woman where she was and go. He had tried to help her, Dale's voice in his head should be happy now. But he knew it wasn't. He sighed and shook his head, holding out his arms to the girl, "Got it."

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Author's Note:  
Can you guys tell that I kind of like this story?  
I hope you do too. I want to thank those of you that read the prologue and came back for chapter one.  
Special thanks to: _JerZeeSkyLine_ and _synismysin_ for adding this story to their alerts list.  
And also thanks to **mrskaz453** and **JerZeeSkyLine** for reviewing on the prologue.  
**mrskaz453**: This story takes place after the farm, but before the prison. I'm still not sure if I'm going to include the prison in this story (or much of season three for that matter) or if I'm just going to make my own timeline and story line for it. Thank you for your review and I'm so glad you are interested in the story!  
**JerZeeSkyLine**: Thank you so much for your review. You told me to keep it going so I posted another chapter today. Lucky you! I'm so glad you were interested in the prologue and I hope you liked this chapter as well.  
If anyone liked this new chapter send me some review love and let me know.  
See you back here soon!  
Hugs and kisses,  
Chloe Jane.


	3. Chapter Two

Disclaimer: I do not own the Walking Dead, although I'm completely obsessed with it and wished I did. Emerson, however, I do own.

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Chapter Two:

"So where exactly are we going?" Daryl asked after he had carried Emerson through the woods for close to ten minutes. She had told him that she had a car hidden in the woods somewhere close to where the Walkers had found her, but they hadn't found the car yet. He considered just leaving her to find her car, but his inner Dale voice told him that he couldn't do that.

"Close," Emerson said, her tone stubborn as she pointed to a tree ahead of them with a shirt tied around it. "I left that there so I'd remember where I hid the battery." Daryl looked down at her, raising his eyebrows in surprise at her statement. She shrugged in his arms, "I've found people are less likely to try to steal your car when the gas is on empty and the battery has already been stripped."

"How are we going to get anywhere if the car is on E?" Daryl asked, silently wondering how the girl had survived this long if she didn't even have the sense to put enough gas in her car to make sure that she could make a quick getaway if needed. Emerson told him to stop walking and put her down so that she could find the car battery. "I ain't pushing yer car, woman," Daryl warned.

"It's not actually on E," Emerson said as she carefully climbed the tree so that she could grab the battery she had stashed in a hole in the trunk. "I rigged it so that it always says E. It beeps when it's at a quarter of a tank so that I know I need to get more gas. But it says E all the time so that people will think that it broke down and not try to syphon it." Daryl stared at her, surprised. He didn't want to admit that the girl was smarter than he had thought. She dropped the battery down to him before she climbed down from the tree. "Come on, redneck, the road's just up ahead."

Daryl moved to pick her up again, but she slapped his hand away. He shrugged, if she didn't think she needed his help anymore that was fine. But as he looked up at the sky and noticed that it was starting to get dark he knew he was going to stick with her until morning. The girl seemed crazy, and she had some very stupid tendencies but the trick with the gas meter was smart and she obviously knew enough to stay alive this long. They found the car quickly and Daryl grabbed Emerson's pack to put in the trunk while she reinstalled the battery. He was surprised to see a newly-killed deer in the back seat, one single knife wound to its head.

"Got that one this morning," he heard Emerson say from the front of the car. She had seen him looking at it. "Should have turned back and gone back to the cabin after that, but I got greedy. Winter's coming soon and it's going to be harder to find food. I thought that if I could get just one more I could cure the meat and it would be good for the winter. I could hunt closer to home after that. I wandered too far from the car and the herd of spooks found me."

"Spooks?" Daryl asked as he moved toward her, grabbing the car keys out of her hand and nodding his head toward the passenger seat. The girl seemed fine now, but he wasn't about to risk her passing out from blood loss while at the wheel. That could potentially harm both of them.

She rolled her eyes but didn't argue, he had a sense that the darkening sky was making her nervous too. "You call them Walkers," she said once she was in the passenger seat and buckled up. Daryl couldn't help but smile to herself when she locked the car doors once they started driving, not that locked car doors would stop a hungry Walker. "Makes sense I guess," she said with a shrug, "they do tend to get up and walk around when they should be dead. My dad used to call them spooks. But I've heard people call them Roamers, Geeks, Freaks. It seems like everybody you meet has a different name for them. Turn left here."

Daryl nodded silently and followed her directions, turning the car down an old, abandoned looking logging road. They drove in silence for about ten minutes before Emerson told him to pull off the road into a small clearing hidden from the road by some trees. Daryl looked around, the clearing was empty, there was no sign of a cabin. "Where's yer cabin?" he asked grumpily.

"You think I'm stupid enough to park my car in front of the cabin?" Emerson asked, rolling her eyes. "It's about a fifteen minute walk from here. If you carry my pack I'll carry the deer. I'd much rather you have your hands free for the crossbow than me and my knives. I can throw them pretty far, but my aim gets bad when it gets dark." Daryl nodded and moved around to the trunk so he could start emptying it while Emerson removed the car battery. Then, following her silent nod he followed her into the woods, completely surprised that the girl was more put together than she seemed. He wondered if she was part of a group and just taking claim of the group's rules so that he would think she was a badass or if she had thought of this on her own.

After fifteen minutes they came upon a cabin nestled in a grove of trees at the top of a tall hill. It was a good spot to have a cabin, Daryl decided. The trees shielded the small cabin from view until you were right on top of it, but you could see anyone coming up the hill. Something was wrong though, Daryl could sense it the moment Emerson tensed beside him. He wondered if she was tense because of her wound in her side, but when he followed her worried gaze he realized that the front door to the cabin was wide open. Without stopping to think of the consequences Emerson dropped the deer she was carrying on the ground and ran toward the cabin with no weapons screaming out the name, "Matt!"

Daryl cursed to himself as he dropped the pack on the ground and slung his crossbow off his shoulder before he ran after the injured girl. If there was a Walker in the cabin or another human the wounded Emerson would have no way to defend herself. The woman really was stupid, he decided as he ran into the cabin, crossbow leveled and ready to shoot anything that moved.

He found Emerson staring over the body of a Walker, a huge bloody hole where his face used to be. He was about to ask her how she had killed the Walker when a small voice came from above them. "I got him with the shot gun, Emmy." Daryl looked up to see a loft above them and the face of a young boy leaning over the edge. When he spoke again Daryl could hear the barely concealed excitement in the boy's voice. "I know you tell me not to go out at night, but Lou really needed to use the bathroom so I took him outside and I forgot to shut the door. It must have walked in when I was gone." Emerson groaned and the look on her face clearly said that she was in pain hearing this story. "Lou was the one that noticed him first. So I did what you taught me to do if any of them got in the cabin. I hid behind the door and threw something to the other side of the cabin and then when it was distracted Lou and I ran up the stairs and pulled them up so the Spook couldn't get us. Then I got the shotgun and I killed it. And after that I didn't come down till you got back. Just like you said, Emmy."

"No," Emerson said, shaking her head and shooting a glare at the dead Walker beside her. "Not just like I said. Because if you were doing just like I said you would have let Lou go in the house and cleaned it up." She shook her head and Daryl could see that she was forcing herself to calm down. He glanced down and noticed that the blood had spread further on her shirt, she was still bleeding. Yelling at the little boy probably wasn't doing much good.

"Maybe we should look at yer stomach," he said softly, nodding at her stomach.

Emerson shook her head, "It's getting dark, there's lots of stuff to do before we close up for the night and my screams could have attracted any Walkers in the area. We'll take car of that, then look at my stomach." She turned back to the boy in the loft, her eyes narrowing, "And then we'll talk about how you need to listen to me and follow the rules." The boy nodded. She sighed, "Might as well come down now, Lou probably needs to go to the bathroom again. You can do that while I'm outside and can look after you." She turned to Daryl, "Can you take care of that?" she asked, nodding her chin toward the dead Walker. "There's a clearing about 100 yards out back with a mound of fresh wood. That's where we burn them."

Daryl nodded and stooped to pick up the body as a set of narrow wooden stairs unfolded from the ceiling above him. A moment later the little boy, and to his surprise a large german shepherd walked down the stairs toward the front door. Emerson had waited for the two at the door before she walked out to go back and get her pack and the deer. He could tell by her narrowed eyes that she was still angry at the boy, but the look of anger quickly faded to a nervous one as they walked out the door, the dark and outdoors really seemed to worry her.

-.-.-.-.-

When he made it back to the cabin the door was shut, but when he tried the handle it was unlocked, he carefully opened the door and walked slowly into the cabin, hands up in front of him so he wouldn't scare anyone that was waiting for him on the other side. The little boy, he assumed his name was Matt was sitting on a chair with a shotgun pointed at the door but he put it down the moment he saw Daryl, "Your friend's back," he called to Emerson, when Daryl looked around he couldn't find the girl. "Lock the door," he said to Daryl before patting the dog on the head and heading over to where the Walker had been. He picked up a washcloth and dipped it in a bucket of water before he started scrubbing the blood off the floor. Daryl was surprised to note the smell of bleach, they were fairly well stocked in the cabin.

He turned and quickly locked the seven deadbolts on the door, noting that while he was gone Emerson, he assumed she didn't let the boy stay outside long enough to do it, and run around the cabin and secured all the shudders, making sure that no light would shine through them to the outside.

He took a moment to study the cabin. It looked fairly small on the outside, but it didn't feel clausterphobic on the inside. There was a furnished living room, a kitchen with pots of water boiling on the stove and a small dining nook. The loft, a hallway that led toward the back of the cabin - bedrooms maybe? And two doors to his left, one was open and revealed a bathroom while the other was closed.

He turned around, ready to ask the boy where Emerson had gone when she walked through a door to his left, he could see stairs leading down under the cabin there. She caught his curious look and smiled softly as she shut the door behind her. "We let the meat cure down there," she said as she moved further into the room and grabbed a bag from beside the couch. "Once Matt has finished cleaning up his mess he'll go down there and get something for us to eat tonight."

Daryl watched as the boy turned to look at Emerson, his eyes widening at the bag in her hand, something about the bag made him nervous. "Emmy did you get hurt?" he asked, his voice nervous as he noticed the blood on her shirt for the first time. Emerson glanced at Daryl for a moment, giving him a warning look before turning back to Matt and waving his concern away, she told him that it was just a scratch and she wanted to clean it up before it got infected. She suggested that he take a break from the cleaning to show Daryl around the cabin. The boy shrugged and stood up from the floor, gesturing that Daryl should follow him.

"Well you saw the kitchen and the living room," he said as they walked down the hallway toward the back of the cabin. "Then there's the bathroom and the curing basement and the loft. That was always my room, but lately Em sleeps up there with me sometimes. They stopped at the end of the hallway, there was a door to their right and one to their left. "This was Emmy's room," Matt said, gesturing toward the door to the left, "we kind of use it as a stock room now."

"And this room?" Daryl asked, reaching for the door handle on the right. But Matt's hand shot out and caught his wrist before he could turn the knob.

"We don't go in that room," he said softly. "Or at least I don't." Daryl nodded, wondering what was in the room that made the boy so upset. He had a feeling Emerson wanted him to distract the boy while she inspected her wound so instead of turning to head back to the main room he asked the boy how they had found the cabin. Matt shook his head, "We didn't have to find it," he said, "It was ours before ... before all this happened. We just had to drive to it."

Daryl was going to ask the boy another question but was interrupted by a frustrated groan from the front room and Emerson calling out to him that she needed his help with something.

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Author's Note:  
And that's chapter two. I hope you guys liked it.  
No one reviewed on chapter one which made me sad. :(  
How am I supposed to know if I should keep writing if no one tells me that they like it?  
I want to send a special thanks to:_ ooglicunt_ who added this story to their alerts list. And to: _FormofJane_ and _MorbidMandee_ who added the story to their favorites list.  
Ya'lls support is really great. So thank you for that.  
Anyway, that's all I've got for now. I'd love to hear from you guys.  
Hugs and kisses,  
Chloe Jane.


	4. Chapter Three

Disclaimer: I do not own the Walking Dead, although I'm completely obsessed with it and wished I did. Emerson, however, I do own.

* * *

Chapter Three:

He walked back to the kitchen, Matt following close behind him, and found Emerson standing next to the table, in her jeans and a bra, her shirt crumpled up on the floor. In front of her on the table there was a bowl filled with a liquid that smelled like a hospital. There was a pair of tweezers, a small sewing needle, and thread sitting in the liquid. Matt took one look at the supplies on the table and glared at Emerson, "You said it was just a small cut," he accused. "What did you do?"

"Stabbed myself with my own knife," Emerson muttered, too tired to lie now. She turned to look at Daryl, "I can do the rest myself, but I can't get a good enough look into the wound to make sure there's no foreign material in it. Can you do that for me?" Daryl nodded and moved closer to her, placing a firm hand on her hip to keep her still while he inspected the cut. He reached his hand out, trying hard to ignore the medium sized tattoo that rested on her right hip bone, and she handed him the pair of tweezers that he used to take out a small piece of tree bark. Once he had nodded to tell her it was clear she handed him a cotton swab that had been dipped in disinfectant. He cleaned the gash in her side as she carefully threaded the small needle with the thread from the bowl.

"I'm not sure if this is a good idea," Daryl said softly, hoping the little boy couldn't hear him. "Do ya even know what yer doing?"

"Of course she does," Matt said, he had moved closer to inspect the wound on Emerson's side. "She's fixed a lot worse than this. Em's a combat medic. She was in Afghanistan and Iraq."

"Not in that order," Emerson said, reaching out to ruffle Matt's hair. "And besides, that was a long time ago." She turned to look at Daryl, her look stubborn. "I can do this," she said sternly. Daryl nodded and took a step back as she readied herself to start stitching herself up. The room was quiet save for the sound of the needle and thread piercing Emerson's skin and the sound of her harsh breathing.

While she was stitching herself up Daryl tried to imagine Emerson as a combat medic. She looked too small to do anything like that. She couldn't possibly weigh more than a hundred pounds and some change. He couldn't imagine her in a war zone, taking care of wounded soldiers, much less herself. She was lean and toned, but her muscles had started to waste away. It was almost impossible for him to imagine her as a soldier.

It took her fifteen minutes to stitch up the wound and when Daryl looked at it he had to admit that the stitches were neater and cleaner than anything Hershel could have done. She reached into the bag and pulled out a container of disinfecting gel, she smeared the wound with it before she put a bandage on it and taped it up.

"Okay?" Daryl asked her, his voice gruff.

"All set," she said with a nod. She turned to look at Matt, "Finish cleaning the floor and then go pick something out for dinner." She moved to the kitchen and opened up a cupboard, she pulled out a can of dog food. She used a can opener and opened the can before she emptied the food into a bowl and and set it on the floor, "Dinner Lou," she called out to the dog, smiling as the german shepherd quickly ran into the kitchen, dropping down to the ground in front of the bowl and happily eating the food. She lifted the smile off the dog and glanced at Daryl, "Really good thing about the end of the world is that when it went to shit people stopped worrying about their pets. One of easiest things to find in abandoned grocery stores is dog food."

"He yers?" Daryl asked, nodding toward the dog on the floor.

"Lou?" Emerson asked, "No, well now he is, I guess. He belonged to the group we were with for a while. I don't know where he came from before them, they called him Lieutenant Dan and he answered to it. But he fell in love with Matty. So when we left he followed us. I didn't want to have to take care of him, but the kid really loves him so I couldn't say no. Besides, the way I figured it if things ever got really bad we'd have at least one more food source." She glanced down at the dog and shook her head, "But I don't think I could do that now. Besides, he's really good at sensing when Walkers are around and he hunts too."

Daryl shook his head, the thing about hunting and sensing Walkers was just an excuse. Women were too emotional, she shouldn't have let herself get attached to the dog. If it had been Daryl who had been followed by the dog he would keep it alive until it became a nuisance and then he'd kill it in a heartbeat. "The boy yers?" he asked, nodding toward Matt who was headed toward the door to the basement.

"He is now," Emerson said with a shrug. Daryl looked up at her, confused, so she sighed before she clarified. "He's my brother," she said. That surprised Daryl, Emerson was young, but she looked too old to have a brother Matt's age. Although, people tended to look older now, those that survived - they had been through too much, seen too much. They seemed to age faster. He asked her how old Matt was, "Eight, she said with a nod, smiling at the boy who was now skinning a large rabbit at the foot of the stairs. Daryl raised his eyebrows and asked Emerson how old she was. She grinned, "Twenty-five," she said with a nod. "Matt was an accident," she said, reading Daryl's mind.

Emerson watched him for a moment before she decided that she had talked too much. It wasn't safe to open up to people. In another time, in another world it seemed talking to people hadn't been such a bad thing. At first Emerson had tried to help people she had found, but she had needed to defend their supplies and their lives too many times to truly trust people anymore. She had brought Daryl into the house, trusted him. It was all because of what he had done in the woods. He had helped her kill the Walkers and then he had gathered her knives and left them for her. He could have easily taken them with him when he left. And then he came back for her.

She brought him to the car and part of her worried that he was going to kill her and take the car once she had handed him the car battery. But he didn't. It would have been easy if he were desperate enough. But he hadn't. He had proven to be a good man so far, a bit rough around the edges, but good. So she had allowed him to come to the cabin. But there had to be a line, there had to be a boundary. She could trust Daryl to a certain extent, but there had to be a limit. She couldn't just spill all of her secrets to him. She glanced at him for a moment, studying him. Daryl swallowed, the look she was giving him made him feel like she knew all his secrets - like she knew that he had failed Sophia, as if she knew about Dale. "You leave in the morning," she said softly before she turned around and walked further into the kitchen so she could get dinner ready.

-.-.-.-.-

Once they had finished eating dinner Emerson took the pots of water that had been boiling on the stove and brought them to the bathroom. She poured the four large pots into the bathtub and came out, telling Daryl that he could take a bath if he wanted to. Daryl had looked up, surprised at her suggestion. She shrugged as she carried the pots back toward the kitchen so that she could boil some water for her own bath after she put Matt to bed. "If you're going to stay here over night I can't have you smelling like that," she said, a soft teasing smile on her lips before she turned to Matt and asked him what story he wanted her to read to him before bed that night.

Daryl waited until they had walked up the stairs to the loft before he headed to the bathroom for his bath. When he came out ten minutes later Emerson was still upstairs with Matt so he walked to the kitchen and carried the pots of boiling water to the bathroom for her own bath. Once he was done pouring all four pots into the bathtub he walked out to see Emerson walking down the narrow steps from the loft, a scrapbook in her hand. She glared at the book as she set it down on the table before nodding gratefully toward him, noticing the empty pot in his hand. She gave him a soft smile as she slid past him, gently brushing against his body as she moved toward the bathroom.

Daryl was ashamed to admit that his breath caught slightly when she touched him. It was an innocent touch, one she might not have even noticed. But it had been so long since a woman had touched him that it was hard for Daryl not to notice it. He shook his head and cursed to himself, telling himself to get his shit together before he sat down on the couch and picked up the scrapbook, curious to see who it belonged to.

He was surprised when he realized that it belonged to Emerson and Matt. The woman had done some pretty stupid things since they had met, but she was tough. She knew how to manage herself for the most part. She was stocked up on supplies, she did everything she could to make sure that people wouldn't steal her car or find her cabin. She didn't seem like the type that would take the time to pack scrapbooks and photo albums when she was running from her home and Walkers. But it was hers alright, or at least her family's because on the first page he was met with a large picture of a smiling teenage Emerson, holding a baby that he assumed was Matt.

He turned the page and found pictures of Emerson and he guessed her friends at school. There were pictures of them at football games, prom, drinking in front of a barn. There were pictures of who he assumed was her family at Thanksgiving, Christmas, someone's birthday party. There was her graduation from high school. Pictures of her at college, friends of hers from school, pictures of her with a boy at a shooting range, college graduation, a page of pictures of Emerson and several other people dressed in army fatigues. It was Emerson's life in pictures. The floor creaked behind him and he turned to see Emerson standing behind the couch, looking at the pictures over his shoulder.

Her red hair was wet and she had changed into an oversized t-shirt and boxers. After he had seen her shift in personality after dinner he expected her to snatch the scrapbook out of his hands and kick him out of the cabin. She surprised him once again by sitting down on the couch next to him and gently taking the scrapbook out of his hands. She flipped it back to the first page. She tapped baby Matt's nose and smiled down at the picture, "This was our first picture together," she said softly. "I had been at a party the night before and was so hungover when my mom called me to tell me he was born. He cried for the first hour I was there and all I could think was _please God, my head is killing me, shut up_." She turned and grinned up at Daryl, "Though I tell him I was so happy to see him."

"Didn't take ya as the type that would stop to grab the scrapbook when ya left the house," Daryl said softly.

"I didn't," Emerson said with a laugh. "My mom packed it for me before I left. I didn't even realize it was in there until weeks later." She glanced up at the dark loft for a moment. "Before he goes to bed he likes to look through it. He makes me tell him what happened to the people in the pictures." She turned to the pictures from her prom, she tapped the face of her date. "Jason was my high school boyfriend," she said softly. "I tell Matty that he's in Florida now, that he found a way to get me a message. That there's a refugee camp out there and he's safe. Truth is that the last time I saw Jason his intestines were hanging outside of his body and he was chewing off one of the neighbor's faces." Daryl stared at her, surprised at how she was opening up to him. She glanced at him and shook her head, "I told myself I wasn't going to talk to you anymore, that it was unsafe to trust you, but this," she nodded toward the scrap book, "in a sick way it's cathartic. It's been so long since I could talk to someone honestly about what's going on in the world."

Daryl nodded, he understood her, he turned a couple of pages and pointed at the boy she was shooting at the gun range with. "What about him? What's his story?"

She smiled at the picture, "That's Chris, he was the one who taught me how to shoot, I owe him my life, Matty's too. We wouldn't have survived this long if it weren't for him. I tell Matty that Chris has family way up in the mountains in Vermont. And that he's up there with them, safe and sound." She shook her head. "Before we came to the cabin I drove us to his apartment in Savannah to see if he wanted to join us. He wasn't a Walker, shot himself in the head before they could get to him, before things got tough." She shook her head, "He always seemed so tough," she said softly, "I was always the weak one, but somehow I chose to survive and he just gave up."

She was about to turn the page and talk about someone else when the dog, Lou came running down the narrow stairs from the loft. He walked up and placed his head on Emerson's lap before he walked toward the door, whimpering softly. "What's wrong with 'im?" Daryl asked, nodding toward the dog.

Emerson looked at him for a moment, she didn't even look startled, "Walker," she said, calm as could be. She even smiled when she realized she had adopted Daryl's term for them. "I like your word," she said softly. "It's a better way to describe them than Spook."

"Yer not worried?" Daryl asked, surprised.

Emerson shrugged, "They come by from time to time. Sometimes alone, sometimes in groups - never big ones though. They can't see the light from the cabin, the walls are so thick it's soundproofed. They can't see us, hear us, I doubt they can even smell us. We're safe here."

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Author's Note:  
And that's chapter three. I hope you guys liked it.  
If you did you should **review** and let me know.  
I live on review love.  
Special thanks to: _Lizette77_, _ResidentGoth_, and _zeldakitty3196_ who added this story to their alerts list. And thanks to: _zeldakitty3196_ and _FanFicGirl10_ who added this story to their Favorites list.  
And a very special thanks to: **zeldakitty3196** and **morbidmandee** who reviewed on the last chapter! I love reviews and I'm so glad that the two of you are enjoying this story so much! I'd love to hear your input on this chapter too!  
That's all I've got for now guys, but I'll post more when I can.  
Hugs and kisses,  
Chloe Jane.


	5. Chapter Four

Disclaimer: I do not own the Walking Dead, although I'm completely obsessed with it and wished I did. Emerson, however, I do own.

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New title, same story! I had been playing around with this title when I started writing  
the story, but I had decided against it. Then last night I decided I liked it better so I changed it back.

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Chapter Four:

When Emerson came down from the loft the next morning Daryl was already expecting her mood swing. This girl's emotions seemed to change every couple hours, not that he could complain, she had let him stay in her cabin the night before and fed him - which was a lot more than most people did these days. When she had gone to bed she had offered to let him stay in her room toward the back of the house, but as much as Emerson said that they were safe in the cabin the Walker out front made Daryl nervous so he had opted to stay on the couch in case something happened. Emerson had shot him a look that clearly said she didn't understand why he felt responsible for keeping her safe, but she had simply shrugged, "Suit yourself," she'd said on her way up the stairs to her brother.

Daryl didn't know what to expect when Emerson walked down the stairs. He had seen two sides of her so far. He had seen her cold and closed off and he had seen her open and almost friendly. After what they had talked about the night before he expected her to close herself off, punish both of them for the fact that she was too open the night before. Instead she was somewhere in between the two. She gave him a soft smile, but didn't say anything to him as she headed to the kitchen to get breakfast started. Daryl sat awkwardly on the couch, unsure of how early she was going to kick him out of the cabin. Once she had a pot of water boiling on the stove she turned to look at Daryl again. "It snowed over night," she said softly so she wouldn't wake her brother up, "still snowing now. The cold weather seems to slow them down a bit, but -" she paused, unsure of what to say next. The truth was, that while she wasn't sure if she completely trusted Daryl and she did want him out of her cabin, she wasn't comfortable with him wandering through the woods on his own in the snow.

Daryl nodded. He understood what she wasn't saying, and even if she hadn't brought it up he would probably have suggested that he stay another night. He didn't like the idea of the brother and the sister trapped alone in the cabin in the snow - too many things could go wrong with that scenario. "Mind if I stay another night?" he asked her, making sure they were on the same page and giving the girl a chance to say she did mind.

Emerson shook her head, "Don't mind at all." She moved toward her pack that was still sitting in the kitchen and pulled out two of her throwing knives. "I have to let Lou out to pee and take care of something. Do you mind gathering some more firewood? It's tucked under a tarp on the side of the house so it should be dry." Daryl nodded and Emerson stood, just looking at him for a moment before she nodded too and whistled quietly for the dog. He came running down from the loft instantly and stood by the front door whimpering softly. Daryl wondered if he was whimpering because he had to go to the bathroom or if he was warning his owner of a Walker.

He got his answer soon enough. The moment they walked onto the front porch the dog stepped in front of Emerson and started growling. Daryl hadn't even heard the Walker, but the dog had. Before he could even level his crossbow Emerson's knife sailed through the air and landed deep in the Walker's head, right between the eyes. The Walker fell backward and lay on the ground, not moving. Emerson walked toward it and gave her knife a vicious twist to be sure before she pulled it out of the Walker's head. The dog stopped growling immediately and ran off the porch to go find a spot to pee. Daryl shrugged his shoulders as Emerson started to pull the Walker away from the front of the house and towards the woods behind it. Maybe she was right, maybe the dog was good for sensing Walkers and maybe she didn't need his help as much as he thought.

He began to gather firewood as the dog ran happily between him and wherever Emerson was, checking up on them. He had gotten enough wood into the house to last about a week and the girl still wasn't back yet. Daryl was beginning to worry, he was about to take off after her when he saw her coming out of the woods with the dog, dragging something behind her. She was covered in blood, Daryl was momentarily worried that it was hers, but she didn't seem to be injured. When she got close enough he could see that she was dragging another deer with her and he walked out to help her carry it. "It was being cornered by another Walker," she said once she was close enough to the house that she felt she could talk without being heard by any Walkers in the area. "Son of a bitch decided I'd be a better meal than the deer. Threw one knife at the deer, jammed the other in the Walker's brain, close range."

"Do ya usually get this many Walkers up this way?" Daryl asked as they walked into the house. Emerson shook her head as she bolted the door behind them.

"I think my screams from last night drew some over here," she said with a shrug. "We get the odd straggler every once in a while during the day, but never one this close to the house in the morning. Do you mind taking that down stairs and hanging it up. I've got to wash off this blood and change my shirt before Matt wakes up. He gets nervous when I'm covered with blood."

Daryl chuckled and headed toward the basement, "Can't say I blame him."

-.-.-.-.-

"Where were you?" Emerson asked. She and Daryl were sitting on the front porch wrapped in blankets as Matt and the dog ran around in the snow. "Stick closer to the house, Matt!" Emerson warned, it was still snowing and they hadn't seen any Walkers since this morning, but Emerson wasn't about to let that make her comfortable - she had her knives, Daryl had his crossbow, they weren't as comfortable as they seemed. She turned back Daryl, "Where were you?" she asked again. "When you realized it had gotten bad and you needed to run?"

Daryl turned to look at her in surprise, she hadn't said much of anything to him since breakfast and now she was talking to him about this? "With my brother," he said, knowing that was all the information he was going to give her, he didn't like talking about his past before all this happened, not that she really knew that. "Where were you?"

"I had just gotten home from Afghanistan, can't have been back in the United States for more than a week and I had gone to visit my parents and Matt. It couldn't have been more than a day since I got back that the broadcasts started." Daryl nodded, he remembered the broadcasts they had started a little more than a year ago, the government's way of letting the citizens know that the Walkers were more than just an isolated incident, that they were everywhere. "Before that it had just been the odd story on the news," Emerson continued, "you know, some man in California eating someone's face, people in Canada that couldn't talk and liked eating intestines. My dad had been paying attention to the stories, stockpiling for them even. But truth be told he was always kind of crazy, had been preparing for years maybe. When the broadcasts started, he was ready."

"Ready?" Daryl asked, finding it hard to believe that anyone could be ready for what happened.

Emerson gave him a grim smile, "As ready as he could be," she said with a shrug. "I woke up one morning, I think it was Sunday. And my dad was outside, packing shit into my car. There were knives, guns, ammunition, cans of vegetables, any food that wouldn't spoil really, blankets, extra clothes, the stupid scrap book. The car was so full that you could barely see out the windows. He handed me the keys and told me that it was time to leave."

"Where'd he want ya to go?" Daryl asked.

"Ma wanted to go to Atlanta. The broadcasts said that there was a refugee center there, but Dad said no. Dad said the center would be overrun and that sooner or later the government would have to take care of it."

Daryl nodded, "They bombed Atlanta," he said, "a few days after the broadcasts stopped."

Emerson nodded, she had heard that from some people in the group that she had Matt had joined up with for a while. "Dad had been worried about that. So he told me to take Matt and drive, he said to stay away from big highways, big cities, and people. He told me to drive straight to my grandparent's hunting cabin. That he and Mom would meet us there."

"What happened?" Daryl asked, looking away from Emerson to check on the boy and the dog, but they were fine.

"I didn't listen, drove to Savannah first to see if Chris wanted to join us. But he had opted out. We made it to the cabin two days later than we should have and our parents still weren't here. I left Matt here by himself and went back to our real home to see what the hold up was." By the look on her face Daryl had a feeling that he knew what the hold up was, but he also had the feeling that she needed to tell this story so he didn't stop her. "I found them, outside our house, half of Dad's face was missing, Mom didn't have her right arm anymore. But that didn't stop them from trying to kill me. I couldn't shoot them, I couldn't do it - not even for Matty who was stuck here on his own. They were my parents for Christ's sake. I was going to let them eat me when a neighbor rushed out of his house and shot them both. He told me to run, that others would hear the shots and come to investigate. I got in my car and drove, didn't look back."

"Does Matt know?" Daryl asked, nodding toward the small boy who was currently building a snowman.

Emerson shook her head, "I told him that they left a note saying that they had driven to New Mexico to check on Nana and that they'd meet us here when they could. He still thinks we're waiting for them." She turned toward Matt, "Matt, Honey, you're going to have to knock that thing down. We can't have proof that someone's here. We don't want any outsiders around."

Matt pointed at Daryl, "He's an outsider," the young boy pointed out before he knocked down the snowman like his sister asked.

"But he's an outsider who saved my life," Emerson said quietly as she picked up a pine tree branch and headed out to where Matt and Lou had been playing. She brushed the branch back and forth across the snow, covering their tracks as they walked back to the cabin. Daryl was the last one in, bolting the door after them.

-.-.-.-.-

They had raccoon that night for dinner, to thank them for letting him stay with them Daryl was the one that skinned the animal and cooked it for them. Matt stayed in the living room, playing with the dog while Emerson and Daryl made dinner. Emerson boiled water to make sure that it was clean before she put the container of it out in the snow so that it could cool down in time for dinner. Next she opened a can of beans and started to cook those before going to the stock room and bringing out three potatoes that she started to boil for them. The entire time they were moving around the kitchen she was acutely aware of what Daryl was doing. She had tried to deny that she found the man attractive and it had been fairly easy to do so yesterday, when he was dirty and rough looking. But it was harder now that he was clean and she had gotten to know him a bit better.

He was a good man from what she could tell. And without the inch or so of dirt on his face it was easy to see that he was a good looking man too. It was hard not to notice that now. She spent the forty-five minutes they were in the kitchen preparing for dinner praying that he didn't notice that her breath caught in her throat every time his arm brushed against her in the small kitchen. The last thing she needed was for this man to think that she was attracted to him. And she needed to stop, she realized, shaking her head, she could not get attached to this man. He was going to have to leave as soon as it got warm enough for him to travel without freezing to death. She could not get used to having him around because sooner rather than later he'd leave.

After dinner Daryl convinced Matt to play a game of chess with him for a while before bed. Emerson allowed them to play for an hour before she decided that it was time for Matt to go to bed. Daryl watched as the young boy grabbed the scrap book out of the living room and carried it up the stairs with him. He wondered what stories Emerson would have to tell tonight. Once she was done putting Matt to bed she came back downstairs, "I should just burn this," she said softly, holding up the book so Daryl could see what she was talking about. "But every time I try something stops me."

"Because those are yer people," Daryl said with a shrug, thinking about Sophia and Merle. "Ya know that they probably haven't made it but ya can't help, but hope." He began to pack up the chess board and pieces but Emerson stopped him. She sat down across from him and told him that she hadn't thought that he would be able to play chess. "Why? Think I'm too stupid?" he asked, gruffly.

"No," Emerson said, setting up the pieces so that they could start playing. "You just don't seem like the type that uses chess to relax." She gestured toward his arms and his facial hair. "Too rough and hard," she said with a shrug. "When'd you learn to play?" she asked.

"When I was a kid," Daryl said with a shrug. "Couldn't have been much older than Matt, honestly. I needed something to pass the time."

"Who taught you?" Emerson asked as she began to play the game. Daryl shrugged again, but didn't say anything. She leaned back in her chair and stared at him for a moment. "You don't like to talk about the past do you?" she asked him.

"Ain't nothin' to talk about," Daryl said, waiting for her to make her next move.

"But you know so much about me," Emerson pointed out. "It seems like all I can do is talk since you've been around. And you don't say much at all." She glanced at him for a moment, studying him. "There's gotta be somethings about me that you're still curious about?" Daryl nodded silently as Emerson moved one of her knights, it was finally his turn. "So here's the deal," Emerson said softly, "You tell me something about you, anything really and then you can ask me a question about anything you want to know."

Daryl nodded, he liked that she wasn't going to push him, she wasn't going to force him to tell her anything he didn't want to know. She wasn't going to ask him questions. He got a choice, could tell her anything he wanted no matter how little it was. And then she would answer questions about her that he wanted answers to. It was an unfair trade, but she was the one that had suggested it. "Deal," he said softly.

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Author's note:  
Hello darlings, I hope you liked this chapter.  
I really hope that you liked it enough to review.  
Because reviews let me know that I should keep writing and that you guys like the story.  
I know I really like the story, but I can tell it to myself without having to post it on here.  
So you guys should **review**. I live off of reviews, seriously.  
I want to give a special thanks to: _Dakota Jane_, _Dear Reader -We're book addicts_, _Poshy_, and _golden-priestess_ for adding this story to their alerts list.  
And special, special thanks to **FormofJane** for reviewing on the last chapter: Hopefully they're not the last words or else this story would be really short. :p  
And that's all I've got for now. Thanks for reading!  
Hugs and kisses,  
Chloe Jane.


	6. Chapter Five

Disclaimer: I do not own the Walking Dead, although I'm completely obsessed with it and wished I did. Emerson, however, I do own.

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Chapter Five:

They had made the deal, but by the time they had finished the game of chess Daryl had neither volunteered any information or asked Emerson any questions. She hadn't seemed that concerned about his silence, seemed to sense that Daryl didn't talk much unless what he had to say was important. They had played one game of chess (Daryl had won) and then they packed the board and the pieces up. Once everything was cleaned up Emerson had gone upstairs to go to bed and Daryl had remade a bed for himself on the couch.

He couldn't have been asleep for more than an hour or so when he woke up to the sound of someone walking around in the kitchen. He sat up on the couch and squinted into the kitchen to see Emerson sitting at the small table with one candle, a shot glass, and a bottle of some kind of alcohol. She caught him looking at her and lifted up a clean shot glass - one for him. "Tequila?" she asked him softly.

Daryl was going to say no. He wanted to tell her that it was probably best if one of them stayed sober. But it had been so long since he had any kind of liquor and tequila had always been his favorite. He couldn't say no. He stood up from the couch and Emerson poured them both a shot as she apologized for waking him up. Once he was sitting down at the table with her Emerson held her shot up and clinked the glass against Daryl's before she downed the shot. She made a face as she put the glass back on the table, "It's just not the same without the salt and lime," she said, refilling both of their glasses. "But what can I say? Beggers can't be choosers."

"Tequila was always a weakness of mine," Daryl admitted as he took the second shot, smiling as the alcohol burned its way down his throat. "And only pussies need salt and a lime."

"Fair enough," Emerson said with a smile as she took her second shot. "And I do believe that is something I didn't know about you Daryl, which means that you get to ask me a question."

Daryl stared at her in surprise. The thing about the tequila had just slipped out, he hadn't expected it to be enough to earn him a question from their deal, but Emerson seemed to believe that it did. He wasn't about to argue with her. "Why haven't ya abandoned Matt?" he asked. He looked up at the redhead and the look she was giving him told him that she thought his question was cruel and cold-hearted. He shrugged, thinking about his own brother, he was sure that Merle cared about him, but he also knew that if ever became a burden Merle would have ditched him in a heartbeat. "It just seems that the boy would be a burden, make survival harder for ya," he said with another shrug, hoping that his explanation softened the blow a bit.

Emerson glanced down at the table for a moment and then she nodded, "I guess you have a point. Matty can be a," she paused, looking for the right word - when she couldn't find it she shook her head, "I wouldn't call him a burden, but he does make things difficult. But he's my baby brother and he has no one else in the world. My parents trusted me to take care of him, gave me everything they could to ensure we could take care of ourselves to an extent. I can't just throw that away and I definitely couldn't just leave him on his own in this world, just so that I could survive. Wouldn't be able to live with that. I would die for that boy."

Daryl nodded, Emerson reminded him of Carol. "There's a woman in our group," he said softly, "her name's Carol. She's a mother - kind of like ya. She lost her little girl a couple months back. Girl got bit, we didn't know, we were lookin' for her in the woods ... I was lookin' for her in the woods. Rick had to put 'er down."

Emerson looked at him for a moment, her green eyes softer than he had ever seen them. She reached out and gently placed her hand on top of his and gave it a gentle squeeze. "I'm sorry Daryl, that must have been hard for your group." She wanted to ask who Rick was, but she had promised him no questions so she'd just have to wait until he decided to share the information. Daryl swallowed a lump in his throat and shook his head, he looked uncomfortable with Emerson's touch and quickly pulled his hand away. Emerson tried not to let that bother her, instead she cleared her throat and poured them each another shot. "Okay," she said once they'd had them. "Next question."

Daryl thought long and hard about his next question. He knew what he wanted to ask her, but he wasn't sure if she was going to like the question. She had made it clear that while she seemed to like talking to Daryl she didn't quite trust him yet. He didn't want her to think he was trying to steal from her or anything. He glanced at her, she seemed to be waiting patiently to see if he had another question for her, but she wasn't staring at him - that was good, he didn't like when people looked at him for too long. "When I go," he said softly finally deciding to voice his question, "to go back to my group, would you and Matt consider comin' with me?"

He had several reasons for wanting Emerson and Matt to come with him. Not only would that mean that they would have the car which would make getting back to camp faster. But they could bring some of her supplies, some of the meat, and he skills. He had known the girl for two days and she had already bagged two deer. Lord knew the group could use another hunter instead of just Daryl. Plus, that way when she went out hunting or to get supplies she would be able to do it without worrying about Matt, someone would take care of him. And Daryl wouldn't have to leave wondering if Emerson and Matt would make it through the winter. He was about to explain all the reasons that it was a good idea to Emerson when he caught the look on her face. "What's wrong?" he asked.

She shook her head. "Why would we come with you?" she asked him. "We're perfectly safe out here on our own."

"But that's just it," Daryl pointed out, his tone harsher than he meant it to be. "Yer out here on yer own. That's not safe. Ya need people watchin' yer back."

"Large groups of people draw attention," Emerson said, shaking her head again. "They draw Walkers."

"But they also mean more people to protect ya from Walkers," Daryl pointed out. "What would you do if it was just the two of ya out here and a herd of Walkers attacked the cabin? The two of ya would be dead."

Emerson looked at him for a moment, she sighed, "You want to know why I wouldn't join your group?" she asked him. "Because I know what happens to women when they join groups. There are two roles for women. The first is chores: cooking, cleaning, laundry. Things that are all useful but would drive me insane. The second is worse: they get used for their bodies." Daryl couldn't stop the growl in his chest when he remembered what the boy Randal had said about what his group did to women. Emerson glared at the table, "I refuse to let myself be used for either of those."

"But we don't do that," Daryl said, trying to persuade the girl. "I mean sure, we have people, women, who cook and do laundry. But we also have women who help take care of Walkers to protect the camp. Whatever skills you have we use. And Emerson, you have skills that would go to waste doing laundry and cooking." Emerson looked at him for a full minute, thinking hard about something before she shook her head and told him that the answer was no, she wouldn't join his group. "You were part of a group once weren't ya?" Daryl asked, trying to think of some way to convince Emerson that she should come with him. He didn't like the idea of her and the boy out there alone in the woods.

"You don't get another question until you've told me something about you," Emerson said, shutting down almost immediately. She took her shot glass to the sink and set it on the counter. "And even if you had a question to ask, I wouldn't answer that one." Daryl wracked his brain, looking for a bit of information that he could give to her that would persuade him to answer his question but he couldn't think of one fast enough. "Good night," Emerson said with a nod before she left the kitchen and climbed back into the loft.

-.-.-.-.-

It was snowing again the next day, although Emerson didn't seem as though she wanted to talk to Daryl she did pause long enough in the breakfast preparations to tell him that he wasn't leaving the cabin that day. Daryl didn't even think to argue. The cold weather would slow down the Walkers, but it'd also slow him down and he'd probably freeze before he made it back to camp.

He spent the day playing chess with Matt and whittling arrows for his crossbow out of small sticks he had found in the trees around the cabin. He had been surprised to see that Emerson had several birds down in the curing basement and he had borrowed some feathers from the birds for his arrows. Emerson didn't speak to him at all during the day and she refused to accept his help when she made dinner that night. After they had eaten she took a bath while Matt played more chess and then with a nod to Daryl the two had gone upstairs to go to bed. Daryl wasn't surprised when she didn't come down the stairs to talk to him like she had done the two nights before. He simply shrugged and picked a book from the bookshelf to read for a while before he went to sleep.

What did surprise him was that by the time he had put the book down so that he could start making his bed Lou had run down the stairs from the loft and was standing, alert at the door, whimpering again. Daryl wasn't comfortable knowing that there was a Walker near, but he decided to follow Emerson's quiet non concern from the first night. He was just about to lay down on the couch when he heard the sound of someone crying up in the loft. He stood up and walked to the stairs, he could tell now that it was Matt who was crying and Emerson was gently trying to calm him down. Daryl walked up the stairs, surprised even more when he heard Emerson softly singing to her younger brother. He couldn't remember the song, but the tune and the words had a certain quality to them that made him think he had heard the words before.

He made it to the top of the stairs to see Emerson sitting up in the small twin sized bed, Matt was sitting in her lap, his face buried in her neck and she was rocking him back and forth as she sang.

"How very special are we,  
For just a moment to be  
Part of life's eternal rhyme.  
How very special are we  
To have on our family tree  
Mother Earth and Father Time."

She caught his eye and for a moment Daryl thought that she was going to stop singing so that she could yell at him for coming up to the loft. She had never outright said that he wasn't allowed in the loft, but she had never volunteered to let him up there either. But instead of looking angry she almost looked relieved and, without pausing her song she nodded toward a window to the right of the bed, the shutters were pushed back enough that he would be able to look out the window without being spotted from outside. He crossed the space to the window as Emerson continued to sing.

"He turns the seasons around  
And so she changes her gown  
But they always look in their prime.  
They go on dancing their dance  
Of everlasting romance  
Mother Earth and Father Time."

Daryl made it to the window and looked out to see a group of Walkers entering the clearing around the small grove of trees that surrounded the cabin. The group wasn't big enough to truly be considered a herd, there were maybe ten or fifteen of them. But they were definitely more than Matt and Emerson were used to at their safe cabin. He turned back to look at Emerson but she held a finger to her lips as she continued to sing to her brother and rock him back and forth.

"The summer larks return to sing  
Oh what a gift they give.  
Then autumn days grow short and cold  
Oh what a joy to live.

How very special are we  
For just a moment to be  
Part of life's eternal rhyme.  
How very special are we  
To have on our family tree  
Mother Earth and Father Time."

Once the song was done she glanced down at Matt to see that he had finally stopped crying and had fallen asleep again. She gently lay him bag down on the bed and covered him up with the blankets. She pressed a kiss onto his forehead before she walked around the bed and joined Daryl at the window. She crossed her arms over her chest as if she was shielding herself from the cold. Daryl wanted to reach out and wrap his arm around her shoulders, but decided against it. She stepped closer to the window, her shrewd eyes counting the Walkers.

"My mom's been singing that song for twenty-five years," she said softly. "She used to sing it to me when I was scared, even when I was older. College was the first time I was away from home and I called her on the first night crying because I missed her. She sang it to me on the phone. She used to sing it to Matty every time he got scared too. Her voice was better than mine though. Sometimes it's the only thing that can calm him down."

Daryl turned to look at the boy for a moment before looking back out the window. "Did he see the Walkers? Is that what spooked him?"

Emerson nodded, "Lou usually sleeps with us too. He'll get up to warn me about a stray Walker if I haven't come up to the loft yet. But if I'm up here he'll just go to the window and whimper, he won't go downstairs. I don't know if it was just the large number of Walkers or if Lou has decided that he needs to protect you too, but tonight he went downstairs. Matt got out of bed to go get him and looked out the window to see them.

"He ain't never seen that many of 'em, has he?" Daryl asked, nodding out the window.

"No," Emerson said, shaking her head. "We left our neighborhood before things got really bad. And in Savannah if we were driving past a lot of them I would make him close his eyes. He's seen the random straggler, but he's never seen a group of them before."

"It can be a shock," Daryl said with a nod, excusing the boy's tears. He thought about Carl back at camp and how he had grown almost immune to the sight of Walkers, he was even killing them on his own now. Matt was lucky and he didn't even know it.

Emerson nodded, her teeth worrying her bottom lip for a moment as she thought of something. On instinct Daryl reached out and used his thumb to gently pull her lip out from between her teeth. Emerson stared at him for a moment, she didn't move away from him, but the look on her face clearly said she wasn't sure if she was comfortable with his action. After about a minute she sighed and uncrossed her arms. "We'll go with you, back to your camp." She turned to glance at Matt sleeping on the bed for a second before she nodded her head and turned back to Daryl, "We'll leave tomorrow. Snow or not."

* * *

Author's Note:  
Hello darlings,  
Well here's the next installment of the story.  
You guys have been pretty spoiled, do you realize that?  
Since I started this story I've been posting a chapter a day.  
I don't normally do that. I must really like this story.  
I hope you do too.  
I want to give special thanks to: _poisedrose_ and _redtailedhero_ who added this story to their favorites list. And special thanks to: _Amtsy_, _MedicallySpeaking_, and _tillybillygoat_ that added this story to their alerts list.  
An even bigger special thanks to **morbidmandee **who reviewed the last chapter. I'm so glad to hear from you again and that you kept reading! Thank you so much for your review and I hope you liked this chapter too!  
I hope you guys will take the time to **review **if you liked this chapter. I really do like hearing from you guys.  
Hugs and kisses,  
Chloe Jane.


	7. Chapter Six

Disclaimer: I do not own the Walking Dead, although I'm completely obsessed with it and wished I did. Emerson, however, I do own.

* * *

Chapter Six:

Emerson didn't go back to bed after her decision. She spent one more minute staring out the window, looking at the Walkers that standing in the clearing outside the house before she sprang into action. "We're going to need to bring supplies," she said softly, gesturing that Daryl should follow her downstairs so that they wouldn't wake her sleeping brother. "With the weather the way it is we don't know how long it will take to get to your group. And they may have moved on by now, groups tend to do that. Besides, I can't expect them to just take in Matt, Lou, and I if we don't bring them some kind of compensation."

"Yer gonna be the compensation," Daryl pointed out softly. Emerson gave him a confused look so he clarified. "You can hunt. Obviously you can defend yerself against Walkers if you've made it this long. And yer a doctor, we'll use that." Emerson flinched when Daryl mentioned using her medical skills. He was about to ask her what was wrong when she shook her head.

"Doesn't matter," she said. "I have skills that's true. But Matty doesn't, not yet. Someone will need to take care of him and I can't expect your group to share its resources with us. That wouldn't be fair. We're going to have to pack some things. "I'll start boiling some water, we've got jugs in the store room that we can transport it in. We'll bring some clothes - there's got to be some women in your group that could fit in my clothes. Of course we'll need as much of Lou's food as we can pack. We'll get all the weapons, ammunition, and I'll bring all the homemade silencers. We've got at least one for all of the shotguns. There's the dry foods and canned foods in the store room of course. And," she spun around and faced Daryl for the first time since she had gone on her planning rant, "You can go downstairs and pick out some of the game, we can tie it to the roof and put a tarp over it so it doesn't get warm."

"I think yer forgetting something," Daryl said softly once it seemed that her rant was done. Emerson glanced at him, her eyebrows raised as if she had no idea what she was forgetting. "How are we going to fit all of this stuff plus three people and a dog into that small car?" Daryl asked her. "And how are we going to get it to the car with Walkers blocking the way?"

"We're not going to take the car," Emerson said as if Daryl had just said the most stupid thing in the world. "We're going to take the SUV. It's hidden out back. Dad retrofitted it years ago so that it can use regular gas or diesel." She paused for a moment, thinking about something. "We've got some containers of gas in the storage room, but just to be safe we might want to swing back to the car and syphon off what's left in there too, I filled the tank before I left to go hunting that last time so there's a lot in there."

Daryl nodded, seemed like Emerson had everything worked out which was a bit surprising. "I'll go pick out the game," he finally said once he realized that she was waiting for him to agree with her, to tell her that her plan was good. She nodded and headed to the loft so that she could start packing up clothes, she told him that once he was done picking out the meet and bringing it up stairs that he should go to the storage room and start picking food. She said that she would take care of clothes, bedding, the water, weapons, and toiletries if he would take care of the food.

For an hour and a half the two worked in tandem, packing things in boxes or suitcases, bags, whatever they could find and piling it in the living room between the two couches. Toward the end of the first hour Daryl opened one of the suitcases packed with warm winter clothes and slipped the scrapbook in it without telling Emerson. He knew that she wouldn't pack it for herself, but that she would miss it if she didn't. Once they were all done they sat down on the couch and stared at the large stockpile of supplies in the middle of the room. There was still more that they could pack up but Daryl had a feeling that nothing else would fit in the SUV. Emerson looked at him for a moment and shook her head, "You're going to be cold out there dressed like that," she said softly before she stood up and gestured that he should follow her down the hallway toward the back of the cabin.

While he had been gathering food Emerson had gone to her parents' old room to pack some of their winter clothes in case there were men or bigger women who needed more clothes, but she hadn't thought to leave any out for Daryl until her flurry of packing was done and she realized that he was still wearing a short sleeved shirt. He turned to the left, expecting to be led into the storage room but Emerson shook her head and gestured to the door on the right instead. He opened the door and was immediately met with a blast of stale air. "It's like a tomb in here," he said without thinking.

"It was my parents' room," Emerson said softly, standing in the doorway, not sure if she wanted to walk back in the room again that night. It had been hard enough the first time. "We shut it off as soon as I got back from the trip home. I told Matt it was because it wasn't right to go into their room when they weren't there but it was actually because it didn't feel right. Not with them ..." her voice faded, she as unable to finish her statement. Daryl nodded, he understood what she meant. She sighed, "His clothes are in the dresser between the two windows. You can take anything that you want. I don't want you freezing as we make our escape." She took one last look around the room, crossing her arms over her chest. "I'm going to go upstairs and get Matt and I dressed in warmer clothes, can you shut the door again when you're through?"

-.-.-.-.-

It didn't take Emerson long to get herself and Matt ready to leave but she and Daryl made the executive decision to wait until it was light before they left to get the SUV. The last thing they wanted was to be caught out in the dark woods with a bunch of Walkers following them. So with about two hours until dawn Daryl tried to calm Matt down by playing several rounds of chess with the kid and letting him win.

Once dawn had finally arrived Emerson sent Matt and Lou back into the loft with a shotgun. They were going to keep the front door locked, she and Daryl were going to leave through a window in the back of the house, there were no Walkers back there. But she wasn't going to take any chances with leaving Matt down on the first level of the cabin all alone.

"Yer sure about this?" Daryl asked as Emerson loaded herself up with several throwing knives and began to open the window. "I can go alone and come back for ya."

Emerson shook her head, "You don't know where the SUV is," she said with a sigh. "Otherwise I would opt to stay here. But you could be out in the woods for an hour looking for it. It's just safer if I go with you." She turned to look at him as she lifted one of her legs and began to climb out the window, "You could stay here with Matt though. I'd be okay with that."

"No way in hell," Daryl growled. Emerson really had become his responsibility recently and he wouldn't be able to handle being safe in the cabin while Emerson ran through the woods by herself, probably being chased by Walkers while she did it. "Yer not going out there alone."

"Well neither are you," Emerson said stubbornly before she dropped from sight outside of the window. Daryl quickly dropped the battery to her before climbing out the window after her. She nodded once they were both on the ground and pointed in the direction they were going to run, "Watch your six," she whispered to him, her own form of telling him good luck before she started running toward the woods behind the house.

They had been running for five minutes before they met their first Walkers. It was a pair of them, not as hard to handle as the group at the front of the house. Daryl already had his crossbow loaded so he sent an arrow straight into the head of one of the Walkers while Emerson stabbed the other one with her knife. They didn't stop running long enough to wipe off their weapons, Daryl reloaded his crossbow with the same bloody arrow while Emerson pulled hers out of the body and continued to run. They met one more Walker before they made it to the SUV. Emerson killed this one too, throwing her knife into its head before Daryl had the chance to aim his crossbow. She shrugged as she pulled the knife out of the dead woman's head, "You killed more when I was in the woods stuck in the tree. I owe you," she said, as if it was normal to keep track of your Walker kill count.

They made it to the SUV and Daryl kept watch as Emerson quickly installed the vehicle's battery. "Okay," she said once she was done and had climbed into the passenger seat. "Part one's done, now we just need to pack up the car and get the hell out of here."

"Let's go," Daryl said as he started the car. The SUV was black and it was dawn so they had decided not to turn the lights on, they didn't want to draw attention to their car unless they had to. They drove quickly back to the house. Daryl stopped the SUV just outside the clearing at the back of the house. Emerson was going to climb out, run back to the house, climb back through the window and meet him at the front door with the first load of supplies. Daryl caught her hand just as she was about to jump out of the vehicle. "Watch yer six," he warned.

"Oh Honey," Emerson said with a soft smile. "That's what I got you for." And then she was gone, out of the SUV and sprinting quietly toward the cabin as though her life depended on it. Daryl waited until he saw that she had safely climbed into the window and shut it before he started driving toward the front of the house.

The Walkers had been in the clearing beyond the trees that surrounded the house when they left. With any luck they would still be there. Emerson said that he would be able to drive the SUV all the way up to the door, but they would have to move fast, he didn't believe for one minute that this group of Walkers was going to let them make an easy get away. They were too far away from society - these guys would be vicious and hungry.

By the time he pulled up in front of the house there were six large cardboard boxes of food and two suitcases of clothes sitting on the front porch waiting for him. Emerson appeared in the doorway with two containers of gas. "You start tying the game onto the top of the roof," she said, "keep a look out while you're doing it. I'll pack all of this up." Daryl nodded and quickly ran into the house coming back with three of the deer from the basement and some of the larger ground animals. Emerson was no where to be seen and nothing had been packed into the SUV he began to look around wildly, only relaxing when he saw her walking around the corner of the house, her knife bloody. "Bastard came from the back of the house," she said softly, "they move fast."

"We'll move faster," Daryl said with a nod as he began to climb onto the roof of the SUV. Emerson nodded and lifted one of the deer up to him before she started to load things in the large trunk of the SUV. Amazingly they had gotten everything into the SUV and all the animals Daryl had picked out tied under a tarp on the roof before the herd caught onto their scent and started coming through the trees.

Emerson froze, her eyes wide in fear. "We're done," she said, turning her head to look at Daryl. "There's no way we're getting out of this. We did all of this packing and they're going to kill us. We can't fight them off."

"No," Daryl said reaching his arms out and shaking Emerson, all he could think about was the group's escape from the farm how everyone had thought that wasn't going to work. But it had, with only two casualties. "Get in the car. Yer goin' to keep the car movin', don't let 'em swarm it or yer dead. I'll get Matt and the dog. Drive around for five minutes, try to lead them as far as ya can into the woods and then drive back here to the back of the house, we'll meet you there." Emerson stared at him, her eyes still wide, no indication that she had heard what he had said. Daryl growled and shook her again, glancing over his shoulder to see how far away the Walkers were. They were closing in. "Em," he said softly, "Matt needs ya. Do this for him."

And then it was like everything clicked for the woman. She nodded and grabbed the keys from Daryl before quickly running to the driver's seat and starting the SUV. She waited, the large vehicle shielding him from the Walkers, until Daryl had gotten back into the house and shut the door before she drove away. Daryl's plan seemed to work, most of the Walkers followed the SUV into the woods, only a few of them kept heading toward the cabin, Daryl would be able to handle them, she was sure of it. She drove them through the woods, narrowly avoiding missing the trees for three minutes before she abruptly turned around and sped back toward the house. The window was open again and Matt and Lou were waiting for her. She pulled the truck right up beside the house and threw open the passenger door so that Matt could jump right into the SUV. Lou followed close behind him and Matt shut the door after them before moving to the back seat. "Where's Daryl?" Emerson asked, her voice tense as she watched the Walkers coming out of the woods and advancing on them.

"He told me to tell you to go on without him," Matt said, a look of panic on his face. "Said he would draw the Walkers off, that he had survived on his own before. He'd be fine. There were Walkers though, Emmy, they were in the house, more than one."

Emerson growled and put the car in drive again. "Like hell I'm leaving him here," she muttered before she drove around the front of the house. She quickly put the car in park and got out, screaming at Matt to lock the doors and not unlock them until she came out. She kicked the front door open, a knife drawn in each hand, he eyes looking wildly around the small cabin for Daryl. "Daryl?" she called softly.

She could hear a scuffling noise down the hall and quietly crept toward the hallway. She was about to turn the corner when a hand latched onto her arm. and a body pushed her roughly against the wall. She was about to scream when another hand covered her mouth. "I told yer brother to tell ya to leave," Daryl growled.

"I wasn't about to leave you here," Emerson growled back though her statement was muffled by Daryl's hand. She shook her head, forcing the man to uncover her mouth. "Let's go."

They turned around in time to see three Walkers stagger into the house. Emerson didn't want to risk missing the Walker by throwing one of her two knives so she ran forward, knife held in front of her and jammed it into the head of the nearest Walker. Daryl shot one of the others and grabbed an arrow, and using it like one of Emerson's knives, slammed it into the head of the third Walker after a slight struggle. When he pulled away there was a gash on his upper leg that was bleeding. "Oh shit!" Emerson hissed, trying not to draw any more Walkers. "You're hurt, are you bit?"

"Not here, woman," Daryl growled as he grabbed her by the shoulder and practically threw her out of the cabin. He limped quickly to the passenger seat and climbed in once Matt had unlocked the doors.

Emerson jumped into the driver's seat but instead of putting the car in drive and driving away she turned to Daryl. "I should look at that!" she told him. "Oh shit Daryl!"

"Drive!" Daryl yelled as more Walkers began to approach the SUV. "Damnit, drive or we'll die here."

* * *

Author's Note:  
Wow, you guys really seemed to like the last chapter!  
I'm glad, because I did too.  
I hope that you liked this one as well. Daryl, Emerson, and Matt are finally on their way to join the group.  
Yay!  
I want to send a special thanks to: _MagicalElf73_ and _docamburgey _who added this story to their favorites list. A special thanks as well to: _Angi Marie_, , _MagicalElf73_, _Pitinkabell_, _biancastefani_, _fanoffanfiction2012_, and _mrskaz453_ for adding this story to their alerts lists.  
And even bigger special thanks to: **mrskaz453**, **poisedrose**, and **MagicalElf73** for **REVIEWING** the chapter!  
**Mrskaz453**: Thank you so much for your review! I'm glad that you're still enjoying the story and the way I'm framing it! It was always my intention for them to join the group, but I felt that Emerson and Daryl needed some time to get to know each other before the girl and her brother just got thrown into the group. Having them fall in love (which is my end goal after the slow dance they've got going on) is more plausible this way. Thank you once again for your review and I hope that you liked this chapter too!  
**Poisedrose**: Thank you for your review darling! I'm so glad that you like the story so far and I hope that you liked this chapter too. And "keep up the amazing work"? You sure know how to butter up a writer don't you? I love it!  
**MagicalElf73**: I'm so glad that you found this story too! Thank you so much for your review (hey that rhymed!) And I'm so glad that you like Emerson. I've read some of those stories where the girl isn't quite capable of taking care of herself and I didn't want that for Emerson. She can take care of herself, but sometimes Daryl just won't let her. The way I figured it there's already one useless female (Lori Grimes) I didn't need to make another one and if I was going to make an OC for Daryl, I was going to do it right. I hope you liked this chapter!  
And that's all I've got for now!  
I've got to start getting ready for my best friend's wedding.  
Please send me review love, I live off of it. :p  
Hugs and kisses,  
Chloe Jane.


	8. Chapter Seven

Disclaimer: I do not own the Walking Dead, although I'm completely obsessed with it and wished I did. Emerson, however, I do own.

* * *

Chapter Seven:

Complete and utter chaos was the only way to describe the SUV as Emerson put the vehicle in drive and quickly sped away from the cabin, zig zagging around Walkers and even hitting the random one or two. Lou was sitting in the back seat beside Matt howling and whining at the sight of all the Walkers, Matt was sobbing and crying about how many there were and how Emerson had just left him in the house with so many and how Daryl had been bit and he was going to turn into a Walker in the car. Emerson was cussing loudly about how loud Matt was and how fast the Walkers had moved. Once she was done cussing about that she moved onto cussing about the amount of them (there had never been that many near the cabin before, _where the fuck did they come from?_) and trying to figure out what she was going to do about Daryl's leg.

Daryl on the other hand was only worried about two things. The large, open wound in his leg and how the amount of noise they were making was going to attract even more of the Walkers. "Shut the hell up!" he growled, turning around and glaring at the young boy who had stopped crying and had opted instead of a long, unending shrill scream. The boy stared at him for a moment before he started wailing again about how he needed Emerson to sing to him. Emerson had quieted down now, she wasn't cussing and instead was quietly trying to explain to Matt that she couldn't sing when she had to concentrate on driving, but the kid would not stop screaming. Daryl growled and turned to Emerson, "Just sing 'im the fuckin' song!" he bellowed.

Emerson looked at him in surprise for a moment before she nodded and started singing softly, hoping that Matt would be able to hear her over the noise of his own screaming. It took three rounds of the song and Daryl contemplating joining in before the kid quieted down. "You're doing great, baby," Emerson told him softly once he had quieted down to almost silent sobs. "Now what I want you to do is just lay down, put your head on the seat and don't look out the windows, just cuddle with Lou and go to sleep okay?" She glanced at her younger brother through the rear view mirror, "Everything's going to be better when you wake up okay?"

The boy sniffed and looked at his sister as if he didn't believe a single word out of her mouth. But she nodded at him reassuringly and even though he still wasn't quite sure if he believed her he nodded and did what she asked him to do. "Promise?" he asked as he buried his face in the German shepherd's fur and closed his eyes.

Emerson nodded even though her brother couldn't see her, "Pinky," she said softly. She sang the song one more time and waited until her brother's breathing had evened out, proving that he was asleep. It was only then that she turned to Daryl, "How long do you think we have to drive before we can double back to the car and syphon off the gas?" she asked him. Daryl shrugged, she knew the area better than he did, she'd know a way back to the car that didn't involve the road they were taking now. Emerson sighed, her eyes darting to look at his leg, the blood was seeping through his pants now, making them sticky and dark. "We should look at your leg," she said softly. "Before we go back to get the gas. I'll find us a safe place to pull over."

Daryl glanced at her, she was biting her lower lip again - must have been a nervous habit of hers. He reached out for the second time in the last twenty-four hours and used his thumb to pull the lip out from between her teeth. He had the feeling that she wouldn't be chewing her lip if she had any idea what the action did to him. "I ain't bit if that's what yer worried about," he said softly.

Emerson took her eyes off the road to look at him for a moment, a small smile resting on her lips, "I know," she said with a nod. "You're a good enough man that you wouldn't have gotten in the car with us if you were. I know that." Daryl stared at her in surprise, just yesterday she had made it clear that she really didn't trust him and yet, what she just said told him that she did trust him. She turned her eyes back to the road and nodded, "You could have taken the SUV when I ran back to the house even without the supplies you would have been fine. Or when we had to go get Matt you could have sent me to find him and you could have just left with all the supplies. But you didn't. You saved our lives."

"From where I stand ya saved my life," Daryl pointed out. "Ya could have left me in the house once Matt got in the car. I _told_ Matt to leave once he got in the car. But ya wouldn't do that. Ya went back in there for me." He sighed, he supposed that he could keep what he was about to tell her a secret, but she had risked her life to get him and he felt like she needed to know. "There were more Walkers in the house than the three we killed on the way out," he said, lifting his hand up to his mouth and biting his thumb out of nervous habit, "There were a lot more in there when Matt was climbin' outta the window. I led them down the hallway and," he paused, glancing at Emerson to gauge her reaction, "an' I shut them in yer parent's room."

Emerson stared straight ahead, inhaling sharply. She didn't say anything for a moment before she swallowed a lump in her throat and nodded. "There's an old abandoned truck weighing station a couple miles up" she said, changing the subject - Daryl had a feeling she was never going to bring up what he had said to her. "It's been closed for years so there shouldn't be any Walkers around there because people haven't been there in forever. We'll pull over there and I'll look at your leg, I packed my medical supplies in the back seat on the floor so they'd be close if we needed them."

Daryl nodded, she had been prepared for an accident, despite all the cursing she had done when they got in the SUV. They didn't say anything for the rest of the drive to the abandoned truck weigh station. Emerson had been right, the place was pretty abandoned, but she didn't look completely comfortable there. "We won't stay long," she said, reaching into the backseat and pulling her bag out of it. "You keep watch." She then leaned forward, pulling a small flashlight out of her bag so that she could inspect his leg, "I'm going to have to cut your pants open a bit more," she said softly, apologetically. Daryl shrugged, surprised that the woman though he'd care that she had to cut into his pants, he didn't care about clothes. Once she had cut his pants open further so that she could inspect the gash she let out a low whistle, "What happened?" she asked softly, trying not to wake her brother up.

"Those son's of bitches have a strong grip for somethin' that is all mushy on the inside," Daryl said with a shrug. "I was holdin' it too far away from me for it to bite so it grabbed me and tried to rip me apart." Emerson flinched at his description and pulled on a pair of gloves, her tone clinical and detached when she told him that it was going to need stitches. Daryl nodded, he assumed that and he scanned the area outside the car as Emerson cleaned and sterilized the wound before preparing to sew him up. He glanced down at her bag for a moment and nodded toward it, "Seems like the two of ya haven't gotten into much trouble since leavin' home. That bag's practically overstuffed."

Emerson shrugged, "We've seen a lot of trouble, at least I have," she amended, "but the group we were with for a while made sure that I always had more than enough supplies. Just in case shit hit the fan."

Daryl turned to glance at her for a moment, "Ya don't like talkin' 'bout that group do ya?" he asked. Emerson didn't look up at him, she simply shrugged and started to thread the needle for his stitches. "What happened to 'em?" he asked, wondering if she would shut him down again. "Ya left them an' took the boy an' the dog. Were there Walkers or didja just leave?"

Emerson glanced at Matt to make sure that he was still sleeping before she started to stitch Daryl up. He cursed once, but didn't say anything about the pain. She felt bad though, she knew how bad stitches could hurt if there was no pain killers. She sighed, it seemed as though she and Daryl were going to spend a lot of time together. She might as well tell him the story, it'd distract him from the pain anyway. "Do you remember my reasons for why I didn't want to join your group?" she asked him softly.

"Ayuh," Daryl said with a nod. "Because women in groups either did laundry or - " he stopped and turned to look at Emerson, his eyes wide as he thought about what Randall's group did. He didn't like thinking that that could have happened to Emerson.

Emerson nodded, her mouth a grim line as she continued to sew up his gash. "Eyes up," she commanded when she noticed he was looking at her. "Keep looking for Walkers and I'll tell you the story." Daryl's eyes instantly snapped to the window. She sighed, she would have been lying if she had said she wasn't hoping that Daryl wouldn't want to listen to the story. "Matt and I had been at the cabin for about two months. I was going to drive to the nearest small town, about thirty miles away, to raid the grocery store and Matt refused to let me leave him alone. He didn't like being in the cabin all by himself then. So I took him with me. There were two other groups that had the same idea I did. I was just lucky they didn't see us drive our car into the town or we would have been screwed."

She pulled a particularly tight stitch and Daryl hissed in pain. She bit her lip and looked up at him, her eyes apologetic, he didn't look at her, kept his eyes on the front window but he reached out and gently squeezed her hand, "Not so tight next time," he warned.

Emerson nodded and continued her story. "I told Matt to stay in the car that I would be back soon, but he followed me, I didn't know. Darren's group," she paused, trying to find the right words, "they weren't nice. It was led by Darren and his twin brother Mark they used to raid towns and whenever they came upon another group they would ambush them, take all their weapons and round them up. Then they'd rape the women before asking if anyone in the group had any special skills - if someone had a skill they needed they'd keep them alive, but kill everyone else in the group.

"With our luck Matt and I came upon Darren's group while they were killing everyone. I planned to be quiet, I had seen things like this before. I'm not saying it's right, but I learned to keep quiet and hide, to cover my ears and pretend I couldn't hear what was going on because I'm a chicken. Matt wasn't as quiet, he screamed because he couldn't understand why people were killing other living people. He didn't think it was right and he rushed forward to stop one of Darren's men from killing a little girl. Darren was about to kill Matt when I jumped out from behind the shelf I was hiding behind."

"Oh shit," Darren muttered when she pulled away from his leg and he realized that she was finished stitching it. "Ya don't have to tell me anymore, Emerson, if ya don't want to."

"It's fine," Emerson said as she took off the gloves and threw them out the slightly opened window. She handed him the disinfecting gel and a bandage and told him to bandage himself up as she started the SUV and drove away, she didn't like staying in one place for long. "It honestly feels good to tell someone. I mean, it's not like I can talk to Matty about it."

Daryl nodded, "Then keep tellin' me," he said, turning to look at Emerson now that they were speeding down an abandoned road and Walkers sneaking up on them was fairly unlikely.

"I can still remember Darren's voice," Emerson continued, frowning at the steering wheel for a moment, "_Well look at this one boys, she's a pretty one ain't she? _That's what he said when he saw me. I told him that I didn't want any trouble, that I would just take me brother and we'd be on our way but Darren said that really wasn't how his group ran things. _But if you have something that you want to trade for your brother, we'd be willing to consider_. I told him that I was a combat medic, that if they just kept Matt alive I'd go wherever they wanted and do my best to help them if someone got injured. They didn't look like they believed me and one of them toward the back, a large redneck type, says, _bitch looks like she'd be a pretty good lay, small titties and all_."

A low growl rose from deep in Daryl's throat. He was pretty sure he didn't like where this story was going. "They didn't," he growled, "not in front of yer brother?"

"No," Emerson said, shaking her head, "not in front of Matt. They took us in and I had to fix every injury the idiots got and at night, once Matt had fallen asleep I got passed to a different guy. They would trade things with Darren for the chance to have me for a night - food, weapons, clothes, chores, whatever they had really." Daryl bit the back of his thumb, he really didn't like where this story was going and he was beginning to regret asking her to tell it to him. "In exchange they fed us, not as much as they got but enough to get by, kept watch over Matt when I was gone, and got me as many medical supplies as I needed. Three of them raided a hospital for me when someone got in a particularly bad accident, only one of them came out, but they had all the supplies I needed. It wasn't until I had a pregnancy scare that I knew that enough was enough and that Matt and I had to leave."

"One of them got ya pregnant?" Daryl growled.

He wasn't sure if Emerson realized it, but she reached out and gently patted his hand in a motherly fashion. "No," she said soothingly. "It was just a scare. Turned out I had lost so much weight that my periods just stopped coming. We were near a small private college at the time so I made them raid the health center for a pregnancy test, plan B pills, and an std screening kit. For the most part, they wore condoms - they didn't want a baby anymore than I did, but condoms break sometimes and I wanted to be safe. I wasn't pregnant, didn't have any stds, but it was enough to scare me into deciding Matt and I weren't safe with the group anymore. I waited until a night after they had raided another group and then when they were dividing up the spoils I grabbed Matt, some knives, and my medical bag and we made a run for it. It took me two miles to realize Lou was following us, but I couldn't turn him back then. We were hiding from Walkers and Darren's group, we couldn't stop. So the dog came back to the cabin with us."

Daryl was silent after she stopped talking. Emerson turned to look at him and forced a grim smile on her face, "Kind of a mood killer, that story, huh?" she asked, her tone almost playful.

* * *

Author's Note:  
Look at ya'll! You guys really liked the last chapter, huh?  
I hope that you liked this one too!  
I want to thank each and every one of my readers for their support.  
But I have special thanks to: _DancingUnderMoonlight18_, _JDMlvr1_, _JustAnotherGirlInTheClouds_, _muffinnlovve_, _Your Favorite Freak_, _jugsjudy_, and _breaktheseodds_ for adding this story to their alerts list. And more special thanks to: _DancingUnderMoonlight18_, _GirlIncognito99_, _GoldenWingedAngel_, _JDMlvr1_, _JustAnotherGirlInTheClouds_, and _muffinnlovve_ for adding this story to their favorites list.  
And the biggest of special thanks to: **morbidmandee**, **mrskaz453**, **JDMlvr1**, **JustAnotherGirlInTheClouds**, and my guest user for **reviewing** on the last chapter!  
I hope that I updated soon enough for you guys and I'm so glad that you continue to like this story! It means a lot to me and I really do hope that you liked this chapter too (Daryl was definitely always going to be okay, mrskaz453 :D) and (morbidmandee) I hope you got excited when you saw that I updated again!  
If any of my readers liked this chapter they should send me review love ... reviews are to me what a human being is to a Walker.  
Hugs and kisses,  
Chloe Jane.


	9. Chapter Eight

Disclaimer: I do not own the Walking Dead, although I'm completely obsessed with it and wished I did. Emerson, however, I do own.

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Chapter Eight:

Daryl let Emerson drive until they had circled back to syphon off the gas from her other car. He hadn't wanted to, thought that it was too much of a risk, but Emerson had been adamant about going back, she was sure that if they didn't go back they were going to regret it later on, she had a point, Daryl had to admit that. So they circled back and Emerson kept watch while Daryl syphoned the gas from the car into two more containers. Then he packed them into the SUV and walked over to Emerson who was standing by the driver's side of the car looking at the orange and gold leaves around them. The snow from the days before had melted and with the sun shining through the leaves it was a fairly warm day. "It's weird," Emerson breathed, looking around at the trees again. "But right now, it doesn't feel dangerous at all."

Daryl nodded, thinking about Emerson. She was like the warm autumn day. When you looked at her you couldn't believe she was dangerous. She was a slight of a thing, couldn't have been more than 5'2" with lean muscles, flat stomach, long auburn hair and bright, friendly green eyes. She didn't look like the type that could hold her own against a Walker or two but she could. She definitely didn't look like the type that could have survived practically on her own for so long, but she had. She was as deadly as being out in the open was if you weren't prepared. "Come 'ere," Daryl said gruffly, holding his arms out to the small girl. She raised her eyebrows at him but stepped into his arms and allowed him to hug her for just a moment before she pulled away and asked him where they were going next. "Oh no ya don't," Daryl said, shaking his head and reaching for the keys, "Ya've driven enough. I'll drive now, besides I know where we're goin'. Ya need to get yer ass into the passenger seat and try to sleep a bit."

Emerson rolled her eyes and for a moment Daryl thought that she was going to argue with him, but instead she simply smiled before heading over to the passenger seat, "Fine then, bossy," he heard her say as she opened the door and climbed inside. He couldn't hide the grin on his face when he jumped into the driver's seat and started the vehicle. Emerson turned in her seat to check on Matt, he was still sleeping - Daryl had the feeling that the boy was in a slight shock. Emerson had done her best to shield him from what was going on in the world and she had done a fairly good job at it, last night would have been a pretty big wake up call for the kid.

Emerson couldn't sleep once they had started moving, she reached forward and fiddled with the radio for a while more out of habit than out of the hope that there would be anything to listen to. For the last two weeks before the radio stations stopped broadcasting all they had played was warnings and suggestions that people travel to the nearest refugee center and then, one day those had stopped too. Emerson turned to look at Daryl, studying him for a moment before she asked the question she'd been wondering about for a while. "You don't have to answer this if you don't want to," she prefaced her question, "but I did tell you the story about what happened when I was with Darren's group," she paused for a moment, working up the nerve. "Back at the cabin you told me that you were with your brother when all this started, how did you guys meet up with your group? I'm assuming you didn't know the people before the world ended."

Daryl glanced at the girl, he was prepared to tell her to fuck off, she knew that he didn't like answering questions about himself, but then he thought about everything she had been through and how despite all that she had trusted him enough to let him into her cabin and feed him. Besides, it was easier for him to talk about what happened after _the world ended_ than what happened before. He shrugged his shoulders, "Met up with 'em on the road to Atlanta. They hadn't known each other either, but fear had caused them to join together, pool their resources. There was a woman an' her girl an' abusive husband, an old man, an Asian boy, two sisters, T-Dog, an' a man with his best friend's wife an' son." Emerson raised her eyebrows in response to the last one, she hadn't been expecting that. Daryl continued, "There were more, but they didn't make it. They weren't made for survival, they didn't conserve like they should've. Carol used to just hand her food out to other families that asked for it."

"And they just let you join their group?" Emerson asked, raising her eyebrows again. It wasn't that she couldn't understand - Daryl was a good, trustworthy man with some very obvious Walker killing skills. Any group would be lucky to have him, she assumed his brother was the same way.

Daryl shrugged, "They were runnin' out of food and I'm good with a crossbow. They needed me. We was never part of the group 'till Rick got there. It was then that I started to belong, had a place ya know?"

"And your brother?" Emerson asked, "does he belong too?"

"Lost 'im," Daryl said with a grim nod. "He was alive when we did, an' he's the toughest son of a bitch I know, but haven't seen 'im in almost a year. Lost quite a few people, gained some more. The group keeps changin' at least when Rick joined us we had someone capable of lookin' out for everyone's interests an' not just his own."

"And why did Rick join the group?" Emerson asked, sensing from the way Daryl talked about the man that he felt a sense of respect for the man.

"It was his wife an' kid don'tcha know," Daryl said, shaking his head as if he had no real interest in any of the drama that may have occurred because of that. "His best friend had left 'im for dead in a hospital full of Walkers an' he somehow made it out alive."

Emerson let out a low whistle at that bit of news. She had been smart enough to stay away from hospitals as much as she could. There were too many people dying there. There had been a guy that she had met once when she was with Darren's group - he wasn't part of the group, he didn't have any special skills, so he was going to die. But before he had been rounded up he told her about what had happened in a hospital in his hometown, the military had stormed the hospital and basically shot everyone, living or dead. They had cleaned out the hospital and then left. This Rick man had to be tough if he had somehow made it out of that. "I just don't get it," she said softly, her train of thought drifting.

"Don't get what?" Daryl asked, glancing at her for a moment before looking back at the road.

"How all this started," Emerson continued, gesturing out the window toward the woods where Walkers might have been walking around. "It's like a disease, people in my town used to call them the Infected, but I don't get how it spreads. I know that if you get bit you get the fever and you die and then you turn into one of them, but it still doesn't make sense. There was no patient zero, no one person that had it first. It just popped up all over the country, maybe all over the world and so fast. I don't get it."

Daryl glanced at her, wondering if he should tell her what he knew. He sighed, figured that if she was going to join his group she was going to find out eventually so he might as well tell her. "We went to the CDC," he said softly, "in Atlanta. We were lookin' for a cure. There was one doctor left, he told Rick that we were all infected. Ya get bit an' ya die faster, but we're all infected. Ya die an ya turn into one of 'em."

Emerson stared at him, eyes wide and nervous. "So there's no escape?" she asked him in a whisper. "All this running, all this hiding it does nothing? It just prolongs the inevitable for a bit longer?" Daryl nodded silently, waiting for the girl to burst out crying like most of the women in his group had done when they found out. Instead Emerson just shook her head, "Fuck," she growled, "fuck."

-.-.-.-.-

It took them two days to find their way back to a spot that Daryl recognized. It was a lot harder when taking the roads than Daryl had anticipated. His only hope was that the group wouldn't have left their camp before he got there. Cold weather hit them again on the third day, it didn't steadily snow as it had back at the cabin, but there were flurries in the air. For the past two days he and Emerson had worked out a system where they were constantly driving, one person during the day, the other at night. One of them was up at all times to keep watch, but by the third day they were both suffering. Daryl made the executive decision to pull into an abandoned park and have them both sleep through the night. On the chance that his group had left the camp he and Emerson would have their wits about them when trying to figure out where they went and they wouldn't be able to do that if they were tired.

"Is this where your friends are, Daryl?" Matt asked, curious from the back seat. Daryl had to admit that the kid was pretty good. He had only complained twice about being bored over the last two days. He didn't run around unwatched like Carl had the tendency to do, and when his sister told him to do something he listened. That was good.

"Nah," Daryl said, shaking his head, "but we're gettin' close." He turned to look at Emerson, she hadn't agreed with his plan and he could tell she was nervous as she looked out at the darkening park around them. He nodded toward the bathrooms that were fairly close to the SUV, "I'll go check those out, ya stay here 'till I get back, got it?"

She turned to look at him, "I don't like the idea of you going out there alone, Daryl," she said softly.

"I got by on my own before I had to rescue ya," Daryl said, grabbing his crossbow and preparing to leave the car, "I don' need a woman worrryin' about me now." Emerson bit her lower lip in worry, but she didn't argue. "Ya stay here 'till I get back," Daryl said again, reaching out and touching her shoulder for a single second, as if that brief contact would force her to stay in the SUV. "Watch out for yer sister," he said, turning to look at Matt for a second too before he got out of the car and shut the door. He didn't move until he heard the doors lock behind him.

Emerson watched anxiously as Daryl crept away from the SUV and toward the public bathrooms. She turned toward her brother, and tried to appear strong for her brother. "Did you hear him?" she asked her brother, gesturing toward the driver's seat. "He's acting like we have no idea how to take care of ourselves."

Matt glanced at his sister, trying to figure out just how nervous she was. "Well you did stab yourself with your own knife, Emmy," the eight year old pointed out. "Maybe it's better for him if you stay in the car too." Emerson's eyes narrowed at her brother, a playful glare now. The boy giggled softly and hugged the dog to him, "He'll be okay."

"He should've taken Lou," Emerson said, shaking her head. "Why hadn't we thought about that?" she turned look out the window again, she was beginning to wonder how long it would take Daryl to check out the restrooms when she saw a face looking out the window of the women's room, it was too dark to see if it was a Walker, but she knew it wasn't Daryl. "Matt, stay here with Lou. Don't unlock the doors for anyone besides me or Daryl, got it?" The boy rolled his eyes, Emerson had a feeling that he was getting very sick of hearing that.

She grabbed two of her knives and all but threw herself out of the car as she ran towards the bathroom to see what was going on. She knew better than to yell for Daryl, the last thing she wanted to do was draw more Walkers to their location. She crept quietly to the bathroom, knives drawn and paused for just a moment on the side of the door, trying to hear what was going on inside the room before she pushed the door open, her knives held in front of her and entered the bathroom.

It was a room full of Walkers. There had to be at least ten of them, she couldn't see Daryl anywhere, had they already eaten him? They were staring at her as if they were confused about what she was doing there. She thought it was weird, none of them were attacking her, she was about to throw her knife at the nearest one when she heard Daryl's voice from the corner of the room, "Emerson," he groaned, "I told you to stay in the car."

"There's more of you?" one of the Walkers asked. Emerson started in surprise, Walkers didn't talk. She shook her head and looked around the bathroom again, it wasn't full of Walkers, but rather people. She wasn't sure, but part of her had the feeling that she'd rather it have been full of Walkers. Her eyes got wider, remembering what had happened the last time she had seen a group this big.

Daryl seemed to sense her rising nervousness because he quickly moved toward her, his body blocking her from the rest of the group. "Yer okay," he breathed softly, without looking at her, keeping his eyes on the group instead, it seemed that he didn't trust them other. "But what are ya doin'? I told ya to stay in the car."

"I t-thought I saw a W-Walker looking out the window," Emerson stuttered, tilting her head to the side so that she could look around Daryl's body at the humans in the room. "I t-thought that you had walked into a nest of them."

"So ya got out of the car and came to get me instead of leavin' like ya should've?" Daryl asked, turning to look at her, he looked angry with her, Emerson was about to snap back at him when she remembered where they were and who was there with them.

"Not my smartest plan, I admit," she breathed quietly.

"Now that you've established that we're not zombies do you mind telling me how many are in your group?" a man asked, moving to the front of the group and glaring at Daryl and Emerson.

"Just the two of us," Daryl said forcefully, shifting again to make sure that there was no way that anyone in the group could get near Emerson. "Not a group, just a pair."

"You expect me to believe that the two of you have survived this long all by yourselves?" the man asked, his face and voice doubtful.

"There's another one in the car," a teenage girl said, looking out the window toward the SUV. "They're lying to you dad."

"That's my kid," Emerson said loudly, making sure they could hear her. She tried to walk around Daryl so that she could talk to the guy that seemed to be the leader of the group, but Daryl wouldn't let her, he kept pushing her closer to the door, staying in between her and the larger group. "He's only eight years old. He needs us."

"That your kid too?" the leader asked, nodding toward Daryl.

Emerson watched Daryl as his body tensed, she expected him to say that it wasn't, that he didn't care about Matt at all. He surprised her by nodding, "Ayuh," he said, relaxing a little bit. "An' we don't want no trouble. We was just lookin' for a place to stay the night, but ya folks got this one so we'll just move on."

"Looks like they've got a lot of supplies," one of the men said, peering out the window at the SUV.

Emerson flinched, once again thrown into memories of Darren's group that killed members of other groups before raiding their supplies and leaving their bodies for the Walkers. Daryl shifted closer to her, hiding her small body completely from view and moving her closer to the door. But the man that seemed to be the leader of the group shook his head, "We have enough supplies to get by," he said "And I'm not going to take supplies from a family with a young kid." He leaned forward, peering around Daryl to look at Emerson, "We won't hurt you or take from you. Go get your kid, ya'll can sleep here tonight."

Daryl was about to say no, that they were fine, but there was something that Emerson trusted about the man. He looked hard, like Daryl, but most people that had survived this long looked hard. There was something about his eyes though, that made her believe what he was saying. They reminded her of her father's eyes. There were ten people in his group, it looked like two families, four adults and six teenagers and college-aged kids. They all seemed to listen to the man with the kind eyes. She tucked her knives in the back of her pants before moving around Daryl and holding her hand out to the man, "Shake on it?" she asked softly.

The man looked at her hand for a moment before he started laughing, a deep belly laugh that seemed just a bit too loud to Emerson. "The world as we know it's come to an end, and this little girl still wants to shake on a deal." He turned back to look at Emerson and took her hand, "The name's Kyle," he said, shaking his hand.

"Emerson," she said, allowing the man a small smile before gesturing toward Daryl, "this is Daryl and the boy out in the car is Matt. We really appreciate you letting us stay here tonight." She looked toward the window, "I'm going to go get Matt now. I'll be back soon."

She had expected Daryl to stay back with the group, but he followed her out to the SUV, "Yer gonna trust them?" he asked, gesturing back toward the bathroom. "Even after all that's happened to ya?"

"Yes," Emerson said, as she opened the door to the car and told Matt to get out and let Lou pee before bringing him to the bathroom. "Because of all that has happened to me I know when someone should be trusted and when they shouldn't be. Kyle should be trusted, he's like you I think." She gathered enough blankets and pillows for the three of them and even some food to share with the group so that they wouldn't be a burden on them. She turned to hand some of it to Daryl to see him glaring at her. "What?" she asked him, her tone slightly angry.

"I told ya to stay in the car," Daryl growled. "Next time ya need to listen to me. What if somethin' had happened to ya? I wouldn't be -" he stopped himself, as if he had said too much, Emerson looked at him, confused, and gestured that he should keep talking, "Matt wouldn't be able to keep goin' without ya," Daryl finished, looking away from her quickly.

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Author's Note:  
Hey ya'll. How are you today?  
Did you enjoy last night's episode of The Walking Dead? I did, loved it. I'm honestly thrilled that Merle's back.  
I kind of missed the racist redneck. And I want him on my zombie apocalypse team.  
I hope that you guys liked this chapter and I want to thank you for reading.  
Special thanks to: _kyfigs_, _tinkab_, _nuku nuku6_, and _rainbow starlight7 _for adding this story to their favorites list. And special thanks to: _YokoshimaMitsukai88 _for adding this story to their alerts list.  
But the biggest of all special thanks to: **DancingUnderTheMoonlight18** and **isopt** for **reviewing the last chapter**! I live off of reviews, so thank you for those.  
DancingUnderTheMoonlight18: I'm so glad that you liked the last chapter and I hope that you liked this chapter as well. And I'm "talented and creative"? You do know how to spoil me don't you? Thank you so much for your review.  
isopt: Thank you for your review dear! I'm so glad that you love the story so far and I hope that you loved this chapter just as much.  
Just as a hint guys, I've already typed up the next chapter and **BIG** things are coming up in the next chapter. So be excited!  
Hugs and kisses,  
Chloe Jane.


	10. Chapter Nine

Disclaimer: I do not own the Walking Dead, although I'm completely obsessed with it and wished I did. Emerson, however, I do own.

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Have you guys noticed the new picture for this story yet?  
One of my tumblr followers who reads this story made it and sent it to me.  
I think that's Emma Stone from Zombieland in there with Daryl, but we'll pretend it's Emerson.

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So, I'm thinking about making a tumblr for this story and all things The Walking Dead related instead of just my personal blog.  
Do any of you have a tumblr? Would you follow my Walking Dead blog?  
I promise there would be a lot of Daryl on it.  
Along with hints as to what will be coming up next in this story.  
Let me know in your reviews if that's something you would be interested in.

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Also, I haven't posted two stories in one day in a while, but you guys kind of went crazy after the last chapter.  
So I decided to post this early. I hope you enjoy it. Like I said my author's note on the last chapter:  
**Big things are happening in this chapter.**

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Chapter Nine:

Daryl was quiet when he, Emerson, and Matt entered the bathroom again. Emerson was used to the quiet, Daryl was always quiet, but there was something almost hostile about his silence this time. Emerson trusted Kyle, believed that he could be trusted when he said his group wouldn't harm them, but that didn't mean that she was particularly excited to socialize with the larger group. Still, it was hard not to smile when the younger members of Kyle's group lit up with obvious delight when Lou walked into the now very crowded bathroom.

The older members of the group were equally as excited about the food Emerson had brought in, though they were better at hiding it. The women instantly set about trying to figure out the best way to prepare dinner and when Emerson caught Daryl's eye she couldn't help but smile when she thought about her first reason for not wanting to join a group. Daryl did not smile back.

Once the women had finished cooking the dinner on a small fire outside the group moved back into the bathroom, leaving one member to play look out on the roof, and started to eat. Emerson decided that since she had decided to join the group temporarily for the night she might as well get some information from them. She grabbed a plate of food and sat down between Kyle and his oldest son, Ben. "So," she started once she was comfortable, "where are you all from?"

"Virginia," Ben said around a mouthful of food. "We've been running for the last seven months, tryin' to get to Atlanta."

Kyle nodded, "Course that was before they bombed the city. We were trying to get to the refugee center, but that's not there anymore. Now we're trying to head back north. We figure if the cold slows the suckers down it might be better in the New England area."

"It took you seven months to get from Virginia to Georgia?" Emerson asked in surprise. "What'd you do, walk a mile a day?"

"Drove for the most part," Ben answered, "until our cars broke down, that is. Took us so long because of the damn roadblocks." Kyle warned his son not to curse in front of _the lady_. Ben sighed, "Sorry for cussin' ma'am." Emerson waved off his apology and asked about the roadblocks instead, she hadn't heard about those. Kyle chuckled, the laughter dark and humorless as his son started to explain. "Can't decide," the boy started, "if they were put up to keep the zombies out or to trap the people in. Guess a little bit of both, maybe. Not that it really matters, all it takes is one of the boarder guards getting bit and it's all over. Can't take main roads anymore, half the time you have to leave your car, carry your supplies around a town, and hope you can find a halfway decent working car on the other side."

Emerson nodded, her eyes wide in surprise. She and Matt had been fairly sheltered. She knew it had gotten bad, but she hadn't realized it had gotten to the point that people were being blockaded into their own towns with nowhere to run if the Walkers attacked. "Tell you what though," Kyle said, his voice quiet and grim. "I'll take walking around a town, carrying all my gear over seeing what going on it it any day." Emerson must have looked confused because Kyle continued. "People tried to kill themselves, see. The problem is lots opted to hang themselves. If you make it through a town safely more often than not you'll see half-eaten zombies hanging from ceilings."

Emerson shuddered, not liking the image Kyle's story brought to her mind. "What about you, Emmy?" Ben asked. "What's your story?"

Emerson was about to answer when Daryl spoke for the first time since entering the bathroom. He didn't say much just her name. "Emerson." But it was enough for the girl, she stood and sent an almost apologetic look at Ben and Kyle before she got up and walked over to Daryl. She made to sit next to him, but Daryl had other plans, he grabbed her arm and pulled her down so that she was sitting between his legs. He wrapped one arm around her chest, and pulled her back tight, so she was squished between his hard muscled arm and his even harder chest.

"What are you doing?" Emerson whispered as Daryl leaned forward and practically buried his face in her hair. She hadn't known the man long, but she knew him well enough to know that he was the touchy-feely type, especially not in public. "Daryl," she whispered when she felt his dry lips brush against her cheek, "you're starting to scare me now. What's going on?"

If the kiss on the cheek had started to scare Emerson what Daryl did next truly frightened her. He lifted the hand holding her to him and grabbed her chin instead. His grip was hard, but not painful, if Emerson hadn't been so worried she might have described the feeling as pleasant. He forcefully turned her head to face him and landed his next kiss on her lips. There was nothing romantic about the kiss, it was hard and fast, harsh pressure that, before Emerson could even think to kiss back, had disappeared when Daryl pulled away. Emerson opened her eyes to look at the man, but he wouldn't meet her gaze, he was looking at something over her shoulder. She turned to look and Saw Ben grinning at Daryl with his hands held up in surrender. She rolled her eyes and struggled against Daryl, trying in vain to make him let her go; Daryl had been doing nothing more than staking his claim on her.

Once she had stopped struggling against him Daryl leaned in closer to her to whisper in her ear, "We're sleeping in the SUV tonight, he breathed before he stood up and began to gather their blankets, Matt, and the dog.

Emerson sighed, taking a moment to compose herself before she stood up and walked over to Kyle and Ben. "I'm sorry," she apologized softly. "He's not very good in social situations, apparently." She turned and looked over her shoulder to see Daryl holding the pillows while Matt carried the blankets - both were waiting impatiently by the door for her. When she turned back to look at Kyle he was grinning at her.

"That's fine, Sugar," he said, his tone easy-going. "I know how that goes, used to be like that with my Kat before," he paused, his face going sad for a few seconds before he forced a grin on his face again. "Anyway, I know what it feels lie to need to piss on your woman."

"Piss on her?" Emerson asked, not bothering to try to convince Kyle that she wasn't Daryl's woman. She figured that after his display it would be a waste of time and breath to say that she didn't belong to him.

Kyle nodded, his grin still in place. "No other way to say it," he said. "Boy was marking his territory like a dog would. Can't say I blame him either."

Emerson shook her head, but thanked Kyle for letting them join his group for a while before Daryl moved forward and practically dragger her out the door. Neither of them said anything as the three quickly moved toward the SUV. Daryl opened the back door first to let Lou and Matt climb in; he threw the pillows in after them before he shut the door and opened Emerson's for her. Emerson climbed in without an argument, she didn't say a word in fact until they were driving further into the park, away from the bathrooms.

"What the hell was that?" Emerson finally asked when they had been driving for about five minutes. Daryl shushed her, looking into the backseat and telling her that Matt was trying to sleep. "What the hell was that?" Emerson asked again, repeating her question her voice quieter so as not to wake her brother. "You can't just go around kissing people just because you feel the need to show off some caveman era ownership! Even if it is the end of the world, you stupid redneck. And why did we have to leave? You showed off, _pissed on me_, we could have stayed. Ben was going to leave me alone after your little display." Daryl shot a glare at her, but didn't say anything. Emerson sighed and failed to keep the anger out of her voice when she said, "Daryl, what was wrong?"

"I didn't like the way he was lookin' at ya," Daryl muttered when he realized she wasn't going to let this go without an explanation. "Was lookin' at ya like yer the first woman he saw since all this started. I didn't like it." He paused for a moment, deciding to park the SUV in a grove of trees. He didn't speak again until he had turned the car off and turned to look at Emerson. "And we needed to leave because I heard one of the other men, Joe, talkin' about usin' Walkers for target practice."

"You kill Walkers every day almost," Emerson said with a shrug. "What's the difference?"

She watched Daryl's blue eyes darken with anger and she realized belatedly that he was thinking about the little girl from his group, Sophia. "That's different. I kill 'cause I havt to, they're attackin' me. What Joe was talkin' about was stringin' 'em up and shootin' 'em for fun." Emerson stared at him for a moment, her eyes wide and apologetic. She hadn't been through as much as Daryl had. She had seen her neighbor kill her parents, but she had a feeling that was different. The way Daryl had explained it the one time Daryl talked about Sophia, _Rick had to put her down_, made the girls sound like she was a helpless animal. Maybe she had seemed that way to Daryl, even though she was a Walker. He had obviously cared about the girl and listening to Joe talking about shooting Walkers for fun must have really hurt him. She reached out to touch his hand, but he pulled away quickly and glared at her. "I ain't askin' for yer sympathy, woman, an' I don't want none of it."

Emerson nodded and turned away from him, a grim smile on her lips, if she had thought that Daryl was going to act differently after the kiss she would have been mistaken. The man was just as touch phobic, just as hard as he had been before. She reached into the back seat and grabbed a pillow and blanket, "I'm sorry Daryl," she said softly. The man grunted in response. She smiled again, "Goodnight."

-.-.-.-.-

Daryl glared at the woman sleeping in the seat next to him. He was angry at her, angry that she had run into the bathroom after he had told her to stay in the car. He hadn't needed her to rescue him, and what was she going to do if the bathroom had been full of Walkers, she only had two knives. Had she even thought about what that would do to Matt? It bothered him to think that maybe she had been thinking about Matt but that she cared enough about Daryl to go after him anyway. He hadn't asked her to care about him, it made him uncomfortable to know that she did.

And he was angry at her for making him care about her. He hadn't known her for that long, and half the time he was trying the keep her out of trouble when she didn't think and endangered herself. He hadn't asked for that, hadn't wanted it. After Sophia he hadn't wanted to care about anyone, hadn't wanted to feel responsible for anybody. He had felt responsible for the little girl and that hadn't turned out well. It was easier to be angry at Emerson for making him feel that way than to be angry at himself.

He was angry at her for getting trapped in that damn tree the first day they met. If she hadn't been trapped in the tree he wouldn't have needed to save her. And then he wouldn't have stayed in her cabin and he wouldn't have started to care about her and her brother, and then he wouldn't be in this situation. The moment he thought that though he took it back. If she hadn't been stuck in the tree she and Matt would have been alone when the Walkers surrounded the cabin, they wouldn't have made it out of that house on their own. Daryl was sure of that. Emerson was smart, she could take care of herself most of the time, but escaping from the cabin by herself was something she wouldn't have been able to do. He couldn't be angry at her for the fact that he had saved her life, he could be angry that she had saved his though. She had this tendency not to listen to him when he told her to stay in the car or leave him behind. He could be angry about that, she was going to get herself killed one of these days and Daryl knew that it would be his fault, because more than likely she would be trying to help him.

But most of all he was angry at her for making him feel jealous and possessive. Daryl had some experience with women, he knew how to fuck them at least. But he had no idea how to actually care about one. He had never felt jealous or possessive over a woman. But sitting there, watching that kid talk to Emerson, seeing the way he looked at the woman like she was the prettiest thing in the world, hearing him call her _Emmy_, it bothered him. He and Emerson didn't talk as openly most of the time, he couldn't look at her like that, and Daryl had the distinct feeling that she would stab him if he ever called her Emmy. He had watched all that happen and he had gotten angry. Hadn't the Ben kid heard Daryl say Matt was his kid, didn't that imply that both the kid and the woman belonged to him? What was the kid playing at, that was Daryl's woman whether she wanted to be or not.

He glanced at the woman again, she was shivering under her blanket, she had given Matt the warmest blanket and had left the second warmest blanket for Daryl, hers was nothing more than a sheet. Daryl briefly considered simply giving her his blanket, but he was struck by the desire to touch the woman. He couldn't do it when she was awake, she would have too many questions, but he could do it when she was asleep. He quietly moved his seat back and reclined it to the point where he was practically horizontal and then he reached over and pulled Emerson's small body on top of his so that her head was resting on his chest and her feet were tangled in his. He grabbed her pillow and slipped it under his head as he spread her thin blanket over the two of them. She tensed for a moment and Daryl tensed too, prepared for her to wake up and ask him what the hell he was doing, but instead she slipped her hand under his shirt, letting it rest on his warm stomach and sighed contentedly in her sleep. Daryl remained tense for a few more minutes, prepared for her to wake up, but when she didn't he slipped his arms around her, holding her closer to him and closed his eyes so that he could sleep too.

When Emerson woke up the next morning she was surprised to notice that she hadn't had nightmares about Walkers through the night. Since they had left the cabin she had been plagued with dreams about the Walkers catching up with them, even with Daryl awake and driving the SUV. She had assumed that on the night that they parked the car and both of them fell asleep she wouldn't be able to sleep. But she had had a good night, and she was comfortable surprisingly. In fact, she was almost too warm. She could hear noise in the background and she smiled when she realized it was Daryl and Matt talking. Daryl had never appeared to be completely comfortable around the young brother, but they were talking, that made Emerson smile. She decided not to ruin it, choosing instead to keep her eyes closed and snuggle in closer to the car seat, just listening to what they were saying.

"So you have an older brother?" Matt asked Daryl.

"Ayuh," Daryl said.

"Does he take care of you like Emmy takes care of me?" the small boy asked, trying to figure out where Daryl's older brother was. Emerson left him sometimes to go hunting, but she would never leave him alone for as long as Daryl had been without his older brother.

"Not anymore," Daryl said, choosing not to tell Matt that he hadn't seen his brother in almost a year. "I'm old enough to take care of myself now. He used to though, practically raised me."

"So you were an accident too?" Matt asked, his voice completely innocent and serious. "My parents used to call me a surprise, like a present. But once when Emmy was in college I heard her tell one of her friends that I was a _big bouquet of oopsie daisies_."

Emerson smiled into the seat she was leaning against at that, but tensed with surprise when the seat started moving with Daryl's laughter. She opened her eyes and startled when she noticed that she wasn't leaning against a seat, but rather Daryl's chest, one of her hands under his shirt, pressing against his warm skin. She quickly sat up and cursed when she bumped her head against the roof of the car and realized that she was now straddling the man who had made it clear that he didn't like being touched. She could feel her cheeks heat up as the blush spread across her face and she quickly moved off the man and back into her seat, "I'm so sorry," she gasped, forcing herself to look at Daryl and not think about the fact that his arms had been wrapped around her, like he didn't mind her position. "I don't know when that happened," she added, confused. When she had gone to bed she had been leaning against her window and she didn't know how she had climbed over the center console and ended up in his lap in her sleep.

Daryl looked uncomfortable for a moment and reached up to bite his thumb, "No harm done," he finally settled for. "Ya must have been cold in yer sleep, moved over here to get warm." Matt giggled in the back seat and Emerson turned to give him a tense good morning smile. "Now," Daryl said, taking control again. "We're gonna get goin' soon. If anyone needs to go to the bathroom before we leave, do it now." He turned and looked pointedly at Matt, a slight smile resting on his lips, "That means Lou too."

Emerson smiled at him as she straightened her clothes and prepared to leave the car to go to the bathroom. "I'm sorry," she said softly once Matt had left the SUV. "For last night," she paused, "the bathroom thing and my apparent need to cuddle in the middle of the night. I know you're not comfortable with things like that. And I promise it won't happen again."

She left the car before she heard Daryl's whispered response of, "It's fine."

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Author's Note:  
So what did you guys think? Did you like this last chapter?  
Was it too early for them to kiss? Or were you happy that they finally did?  
Keep in mind it wasn't exactly a romantic kiss, but it was still a kiss.  
Anyway, I want to extend a special thanks to: _Pomegranate Girl_, _Saphireblu987_, _Tayler Snape13_, _angelbg_, _bookelf_, _neutron-flow_ and_ xzcarlyzx_who added this story to their alerts list today. And another special thanks to: _Gaby de Brabant_, _R__avennn_, _Saphireblu987_, _Tayler Snape13_, _Toyanome Masuri_, _ashleypayne_, and _bookelf_ who added this story to their favorites list today.  
But the **biggest** of special thanks goes to: **biancastefani**, **morbidmandee**, **Toyanome Masuri**, **DancingUnderMoonlight18**,** Gaby de Brabant**, **bookelf**, **isopt**, **Ravennn**, **JDMlvr1**, and **Tayler Snape13** for **reviewing the last chapter**.  
biancastefani: Thank you so much for reviewing on the last chapter! I'm so glad that you like the story so far and my version of Daryl (mostly I like that you find the story believable because confession: I've never written about zombies before so when I write the chapters I always feel like I'm just muddling my way through it.)  
morbidmandee: I'm going to assume that smile means that you liked the last chapter and were excited about the big things to come in this one? Thank you so much for you're review dear! And I hope you liked this chapter as well.  
Toyanome Masuri: Thank you so much for your review! I'm so glad that you like this story so far and I hope that you continue to read it as I post more. :D  
DancingUnderMoonlight18: Hello my dear, thank you so much for your review on the last chapter and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that after reading this chapter you'll still think I'm as talented as you did before. :p And I agree with you, the Governor's pretty slimy, I'm not a fan of him.  
Gaby de Brabant: Thank you so much for not only reviewing, but for reading all nine chapters in a row! (how long did that take?) I'm so glad that you like this story and my version of Daryl (I'm always worried when I write him because while I love his character on the show [obsessed really] I wasn't sure if I would know how to write a character like him, but apparently I do.) And I'm glad you like my OCs too! Don't worry too much about Lou, he's going to be good for a while, although I am toying around the idea of having him die I don't know if I would be able to write it. I like dogs too much.  
bookelf: Hello darling, I'm so glad that you found my story while waiting on Sandy. I'm assuming you live on the east coast? Northish (I'll be sad if it's the DC area, I used to live there and I miss it so much now). I'm so glad that you like the story so far and I hope that you liked this chapter as well. This second update of the day is dedicated to you, dear. Here's hoping I got it out to you before your power went out.  
isopt: This is the first time someone has quoted this story back to me! You have no idea how ridiculously happy that makes me! Thank you so much for your review and I'm glad you liked the last chapter! (I'm guessing that was your favorite part?)  
Ravennn: Thank you so much for your review! I'm glad that you like the story so far, and don't worry, I plan to keep writing. I like Emerson and Daryl too much to give up on this story. And I'm glad that my writing isn't as childish as lots of stories, I haven't read many Daryl/OC stories (don't want their plots to interfere with what I've got going on in my story) but the few I read seem to fall into two categories: pretty childish, or the OC was a completely predictable Mary-sue who had no real skills and probably wouldn't actually survive a zombie apocalypse. I'm glad that so far I've seemed to escape that trap. (And I think Emerson's a good match for Daryl too. :D)  
JDMlvr1: Thank you so much for your review! They did get lucky, unfortunately Daryl decided they weren't going to take advantage of their luck. I hope that you liked this chapter as well. Happy reading!  
Tayler Snape13: Thank you so much for your review! I'm so glad that you've enjoyed the story so far and I hope that you liked this chapter as well. (Hopefully I didn't make you wait too long for it. :p)  
Phew, that was a lot of reviews to answer to. I **loved **it! Send me more, I'm greedy :p  
I'll see you guys back here soon!  
Hugs and kisses,  
Chloe Jane.


	11. Chapter Ten

Disclaimer: I do not own the Walking Dead, although I'm completely obsessed with it and wished I did. Emerson, however, I do own.

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Just as a heads up, I'm making a completely Walking Dead related tumblr tonight.  
It's mostly going to be about Daryl, but the other characters will be there.  
And like I said yesterday there will be lots that have to do with this story on their too. Spoilers and the like.  
So if you have a tumblr and that would interest you... I'm going to try to keep my name.  
So around nine tonight you should search for .Chloe on there and follow me.  
That is all ... enjoy this chapter.

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Chapter Ten:

"You're sure this is the way?" Emerson asked, her voice doubtful as Daryl turned the car off the backroad they had been driving down and onto a small gravel walking path. "This path isn't even big enough for a smart car let alone an SUV," Emerson pointed out. "This doesn't seem right to me." Her tone was cautious, she didn't want to anger Daryl, not after last night when she had crowded into his personal space and apparently forced him to let her sleep on top of him. But this path really didn't look like it was going to lead them to a Walker-free safe place.

"I'm sure," Daryl grunted, "I was the one who helped Rick find it." And that was the end of the discussion. Emerson wasn't going to argue with him. If the man said he knew where they were going she was going to believe him. She didn't really have a choice not to.

She turned in her seat and smiled reassuringly at Matt. "You ready to make some new friends?" she asked her little brother, trying to hide the nervousness from her voice. Some of it must have shown though because without making eye contact or even looking at her Daryl reached over and wrapped his hand around Emerson's smaller one. He gave her hand a brief squeeze before he pulled away, placing both hands firmly on the steering wheel again. Emerson couldn't help but smile at him, even though she knew her attention might make him feel uncomfortable.

"Is there anyone close to my age?" Matt asked, his voice excited. He remembered their time with the bigger group slightly differently than his sister. The adults had been pretty nice to him, they watched out for him, sometimes they'd play with him. He hadn't understood why Emerson had been so happy to leave them. He had felt safer with the larger group, not that he was going to tell his sister that, he didn't want her to think that he thought she wouldn't be able to keep him safe. She had so far.

"Sure is," Daryl said with a nod. "Carl's about yer age. An' Lori's gonna have a baby so there will even be someone younger than ya." Emerson's eyes snapped to Daryl's face at that bit of unexpected information. She had not known that there was a pregnant woman in the group. She wondered what the group was going to do when the baby was born, what were they going to do if it started crying like most newborns did. Daryl looked over at her and gave her what he hoped was a reassuring smile, "It's too late to back out now," he said softly, hoping that he would be able to alleviate some of her obvious nerves. "Yer stuck with me."

Despite herself Emerson smiled, she liked the idea of being stuck with Daryl. She would find some way to deal with the rest of the group if it meant that they'd stick together. "Fine by me," she said, her smile getting bigger as she blushed and turned away from Daryl to stare out the window. She didn't want to make him any more uncomfortable. Matt sat in the back seat and watched as his sister smiled out the window and Daryl turned to smile at her for a brief moment. He didn't really know what was going on with them, but he knew they were friends and he liked that. He liked Daryl a lot so it made him happy to know his sister liked him too.

"What's Carl like?" he asked Daryl after a moment. "Will he play chess with me?" Emerson and Daryl exchanged a glance before Emerson turned around and calmly explained to Matt that they hadn't brought the chess game with them, that they had left it in the cabin and now that they didn't have a house things were going to be very different. Matt stared at her for a moment, processing the information before he shrugged, "That's fine, Emmy, we'll just make our own games." And then he turned all of his attention to Lou.

Emerson smiled at her younger brother for a moment, proud of him for not making a big deal out of the fact that life was going to be harder for him now. She only turned away from him when Daryl cleared his throat, trying to get her attention. "I should warn ya about Carl," he whispered, glancing in the rearview mirror to make sure that Matt wasn't listening to them. Emerson raised her eyebrows, waiting expectantly for Daryl to continue. He sighed and lifted his hand off the steering wheel, biting the outside of his thumb for a moment before glancing at Emerson, his eyes quickly darting back to the path. "He's not like Matt," he started, trying to find the right words to explain Carl. "Kid's been through a lot. He was close to the girl, watched his dad put 'er down. He's dealt with Walkers, killed a few of his own. Matt's soft, Carl's not."

Emerson nodded slowly for a moment, taking in the information. She turned to look at Matt again for a moment before she turned back to Daryl, she nodded again. "It's my fault he's soft," she said softly. "But I'd do it again if I could." She paused, biting her lip and Daryl's hands clenched around the steering wheel, he had to force himself not to reach over and tug her bottom lip out from between her teeth. She sighed, "But I can't do it anymore. We don't really have a safe place anymore. Being soft is going to kill him." When Daryl glanced at her again she had tears in her eyes and he felt bad for being the one to force her to make this realization. She bit particularly hard on her lip and winced when her teeth broke the skin. "Maybe Carl will be good for him," she said softly, "he's going to have to become hard."

"Not too hard," Daryl said softly, "the whole point of ya joinin' the group is so that ya guys are safer. He won't need too much changin'."

Emerson responded with a shrug that clearly said she didn't believe him as she reached up with her right hand to wipe away some of the blood on her lip. She scoffed at herself and pulled down the visor so that she could look at herself in the mirror. "Look at me," she said softly, wiping away at the tear streaks on her cheeks. "I'm a mess. We're going to find your group and they're going to think you're crazy for taking me and Matty in."

Daryl reached over and grabbed her wrist, stilling her movements. "Ya don't think we all haven't cried since all this begun?" he asked her, not even feeling embarrassed to admit that he had cried once or twice. "They won't worry a lick about it." Emerson raised her eyebrows at him, silently asking him, _really? _and Daryl nodded. "Besides, they're gonna be too excited about what ya brought to notice yer damn face, woman," he added gruffly, letting go of her wrist and hoping she hadn't noticed that he held it for longer than necessary. He was about to apologize to her for cussing at her, he hoped he hadn't insulted her, but she started laughing before he could. He didn't even try to hide the small smile that the noise brought to his lips.

-.-.-.-.-

It took them another three hours to navigate their way over the path toward the camp. Daryl could sense Emerson's nerves getting bigger and bigger with each passing minute. And when he finally pulled the SUV off the path and began to navigate its way through the trees toward where the camp was she started biting her lip again. "Yer gonna start bleedin' again if ya keep that up," he warned. Emerson chose not to acknowledge his warning, but she did stop biting her lip so that she could ask him how much longer it was going to take. It was starting to get dark and they wouldn't be able to turn the headlights on so the last thing she wanted was to be driving the SUV through the trees in the dark. "Jus' a bit further," Daryl said with a nod of his chin to their right where in the twilight you he could make out the cars in the distance.

"Oh shit, we're here," Emerson whispered, turning toward the back seat to wake Matt up. "Hey honey," she said softly, reaching out to gently shake the young boy. "You wanna wake up now? We're going to have some new friends to meet." Daryl could hear her voice shake, but he didn't mention it. It was clear that she was trying to appear strong for her younger brother and for the group of people she was about to meet. He didn't want to make her feel worse by pointing out the fact that it wasn't working. She may have been fooling Matt, but he could see her hands shaking, despite the fact that she had curled them into fists. "Are you excited?" she asked her brother.

"I like having people around," Matt said softly, trying not to hurt his sister's feelings by admitting that he was excited. "And there's a kid my age there. I haven't had a friend since we left home. Aren't you excited, Emmy?"

Emerson swallowed the lump in her throat that had appeared at Matt's statement about not having a friend since they had left home. The boy had cried a lot of nights over the possible fates of his friends. Emerson had tried to assure him that all of his friends were safe, but deep down she knew that he had to be aware that not all of his friends could have made it through safely. She forced a smile onto her face as she answered his question. "Of course I am, sweetie. You know I like making friends too." Daryl glanced at the girl and nodded when he noticed the tense set of her jaw, Emerson really wasn't thrilled about what was going to happen, but it was the best thing for her brother and she wasn't going to let her fear stop them. For some reason that seemed braver to him than she had ever seemed when they were facing Walkers.

"Here we are," he grunted a minute later as he put the SUV in park and turned it off. Out of the corner of his eye he could see members of his group standing up around the small fire, they were looking curiously toward the SUV, trying to figure out who had happened upon their camp. He turned to look at Emerson, trying to give her a moment to calm herself down. "Are ya ready?" he asked her. "If ya need more time, I can go and explain the situation to them. Ya can come when yer ready."

Emerson considered his offer for a minute before she shook her head. "I'm ready now," she said, unbuckling her seatbelt and opening the car door. "Come on Matt, put Lou's leash on and keep him close. We don't want to scare anyone." Daryl quickly got out of the car and walked around toward Emerson's side, she was ready to do this, but he wasn't going to make her do it on her own. She smiled up at him as they started walking toward the camp fire. She was holding Matt's hand, but had purposefully placed her body in front of the boy's, guarding him. She couldn't help but notice that Daryl was mirroring her action with her. He wasn't holding her hand, but he was walking slightly in front of her, shielding her from view. "I'm fine," she whispered quietly to him, "really."

Daryl didn't look like he believed her, but he didn't have time to respond before someone called his name softly from the fire. They had finally gotten close enough to the light that the group could see who it was. He glanced up and chuckled when he saw Carol and T-Dog standing closest to him. "Don' wear it out," he called back softly.

"Oh thank god!" Carol said before she rushed forward so that she could throw her arms around Daryl's shoulders and make sure that he was safe. Daryl felt Emerson flinch slightly as Carol moved quickly toward them and he felt more than he saw her pull further away from him. "We thought you were dead," Carol said softly as she started to pull away from him. "We were going to leave tomorrow, we waited here as long as we could."

"Ya guys know it'd take a lot more to kill me than a couple o' days away from camp," Daryl admonished, reaching out to shake T-Dog's outstretched hand, ignoring the way both of their eyes kept darting toward Emerson, Matt, and the dog. He figured that it would be easier to explain how he met Emerson once to the entire group instead of several times. "All the same, I appreciate ya waitin' this long for me to get back," he added as Rick approached the rapidly growing group.

Rick nodded, his eyes curious as he surveyed the group, "Looks like you've got a story for us, Daryl," he said nodding toward Emerson, Matt, and Lou. Daryl turned to see Emerson biting her lip again and he sighed, she looked as though she was using everything in her to stay where she was and not run away. "My name's Rick Grimes," Rick said, holding out his hand to Emerson. She glanced at it nervously for a moment before she stepped forward and shook his hand, introducing herself softly. Rick nodded, "Well come sit down by the fire, it's too cold to be standing here. We were about to start figuring out what to eat for dinner," the glance he sent to Daryl told him that they were running low on food and he was relieved that he and Emerson had been able to pack as much food as they had.

"I got that figured out," he said, turning back toward the SUV.

It was silent for a moment after Daryl left before Carol jumped into action. "How rude of me," she said softly, moving closer to Emerson. Emerson forced herself not to flinch when the woman moved closer to her. "The world as we know it may have ended, but that's no excuse for me to be rude," Carol said, holding her hand out to Emerson. "My name's Carol," she said as the girl shook her hand. "You're Emerson, and who is this?" she added, stooping down so that she could shake Matt's hand.

"This is my younger brother Matt and Lieutenant Dan or simply Lou," Emerson said with a nod toward each of them in turn. "Thank you for letting us join you."

Carol waved off Emerson's thanks as if it was no big deal, although they both knew that in this world it was. "I don't know about you," she said to Matt, "but I'm cold. How about we go warm up by the fire?"

Matt glanced up at Emerson, silently asking her if it was okay for them to head toward the fire. Emerson held onto his hand tightly for a moment, about to say no, but then she nodded slowly. Daryl trusted these people, that had to mean something. If he could trust them, she could try to do the same thing. "You go," she said softly, forcing herself to let go of his tiny hand. "I'm going to go see if Daryl needs any help at the car. I'll be there before you know it." Matt looked nervous for just a moment before he nodded and followed Carol, Rick, and the large black man - Emerson hadn't caught his name, toward the fire. Emerson watched him walk for a moment before she turned around and walked back to the SUV to see Daryl had pulled one of the deer off the roof of the SUV and was now in the back digging through the cans of vegetables. "Need any help?" Emerson asked him softly.

"Where's Matt?" Daryl asked as he picked out a large, family sized can of potatoes and then one of the containers of water. Emerson shrugged, trying to seem nonchalant and told him that Matt and Lou had gone with Carol to the fire. Daryl nodded silently, he knew that acknowledging how hard that must have been for Emerson would make her uncomfortable so he didn't. "Are ya gonna carry the deer or the water and potatoes?" he asked her a moment later instead.

Emerson smiled at him, silently thanking him for not making a big deal out of the situation and moved forward to grab the water jug and can from him. Daryl nodded and closed the trunk before he picked up the deer carcass and the two started walking toward the fire. There were a few noises of appreciation when he came into view and people saw the deer he was carrying. T-Dog even congratulated him on the kill. Daryl shrugged and jerked his chin toward Emerson, "Ain't my deer. It's hers." When everyone turned to look at Emerson she looked uncomfortable with the attention until Matt spoke up from his seat next to Carol.

"My sister's really good at hunting," the young boy said, completely comfortable with the group around them. "She and my dad used to go all the time. I couldn't ever go, I was too young. But once Mom and Dad get back from getting my nana from New Mexico I'm gonna get Dad to teach me to hunt." He didn't notice Emerson flinch at the mention of their parents getting back from New Mexico, he just kept talking. "Hunting's a man's job, Emmy shouldn't have to do it all the time."

"Now I won't have to," Emerson said, as she sat down on the ground next to Matt and held her arms open to him. Her brother climbed willingly into her lap and she wrapped her arms around him even though he was starting to get too big for her to hold him that way. "Daryl will help me now," she said, placing her cheek on the top of Matt's head and smiling softly at Daryl. Daryl nodded encouragingly at her and picked up the can of potatoes she had put on the ground, he handed it silently to Carole before he sat down next to Emerson and Matt and asked the girl if she had any of her knives. "Of course," she said softly, shooting him a look that clearly said that she thought he was an idiot for asking.

He took it from her with a smile and began to silently skin the deer so that they could cook it for dinner. The group was silent for a moment before Rick spoke up, "So Daryl," the man said, his eyes never leaving Emerson and Matt. "How did you meet these two?"

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Author's Note:  
Hey ya'll! I hope you liked this chapter.  
It took us ten chapters, but they've finally made it to the group.  
Although nothing's really happened yet, all in good time pets.  
Anyway, I want to thank you for taking the time to read this chapter.  
Special thanks go to: _Lady of Denial_and _Perminatly Lost in Thought_ for adding this story to their alerts list.  
But the biggest of special thanks goes to: , **Resident Goth**, **Lady of Denial**, **Ravennn**, **Gaby de Brabant**, and D**ancingUnderMoonlight18** who **reviewed** on the last chapter. So **Big** thanks for that.  
: Thank you so much for your review! I'm so glad that you liked the last chapter. (Correction: that it made you incredibly happy) and I'm happy that nothing that happened between Emerson and Daryl was out of place. I've been waiting since the prologue to make them kiss. I hope that you enjoyed this chapter as well.  
ResidentGoth: Two reviews in one day! That is very special! I love that the lullaby gave you so many feels. I have always loved that movie and the song and my mom used to sing it to me when I was a kid, so it seemed like the perfect song to include in the story. And yes, I am patient when it comes to reviews. The way I figure it if someone takes the time to review on my chapter I should take the time to give them a response. I honestly loved writing the caveman thing, I'm a fan of protective Daryl too.  
As far as the reading in the previous chapter goes. The way I've always looked at Daryl is that he's not stupid, he just didn't graduate from high school. I got the idea of him reading from the episode in which Andrea shoots him. She brings him a book to read and he goes, "What? No pictures?" To me that quote was more a sarcastic reference to the fact that people think he's dumb than an actual request for a picture book. I do like the idea of the Faulkner book though, him hiding that from Merle is quite the picture. And now I'm the one rambling, but you did give me two reviews so I think you deserve it. Thank you! And I hope you enjoyed this chapter too.  
Lady of Denial: Thank you for reviewing, dear! I'm so glad that you like the story so far and I hope you liked this chapter as well. I always worry when I introduce an OC into a story because there's a huge chance people not like her, but that doesn't seem to be the case with Emerson which is great. And you got your wish, they finally met up with the group again. :D  
Ravennn: I hope I didn't make you wait too long for this new chapter, darling. And I hope that you enjoyed it. You definitely know how to spoil me, what with your, "Def my favorite Daryl/OC story!" so thank you so much for that! You're amazing.  
Gaby de Brabant: Hi! Thank you so much for your review! I'm glad that you liked the last chapter and I hope you liked this one too. Though, I will be making you wait a bit longer for the real kiss. I'm so glad that you find my Daryl in any way comparable to the show's Daryl. That is some pretty big praise. So thank you, you're gonna make me blush.  
DancingUnderMoonlight18: Thank you for reviewing on the last chapter! I hope you liked this chapter as well. Now question: Did Emerson's embarrassment make you laugh out loud? (Because that would have been skill on my part.) And I'm glad you find Em and Daryl perfect for each other. I like to think they are. I also like to think that AMC should make Emerson a real character and hire me to play her, but that probably won't happen. Like I said up top, making the second tumblr account tonight, should be under the same name, but if not, I'll post the name on my profile here so people can look.  
And that's all I've got for now. Should be posting again soon!  
Hugs and kisses,  
Chloe Jane.


	12. Chapter Eleven

Disclaimer: I do not own the Walking Dead, although I'm completely obsessed with it and wished I did. Emerson, however, I do own.

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Check out my tumblr: MissChloeJane.  
I post spoilers. :D

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Chapter Eleven:

Daryl glanced at Emerson to see if she was going to answer Rick's question, but she simply shrugged, Rick had asked Daryl, not her. He studied her for a moment as he continued to skin the deer before he smiled, Emerson wasn't sure if she liked the look of that smile, and turned back to look at Rick. "I saved Emerson's life," he said, his smile only getting bigger at Emerson's quiet huff of playful anger. "I was out huntin' when I caught onto 'er trail. I followed it and found the woman bein' chased by a small herd of Walkers after she had stabbed herself with 'er own knife."

He had been waiting for Emerson to stop him and he wasn't surprised when she held her hand up, palm facing him and turned toward the group. "I hadn't stabbed myself with my own knife." Daryl scoffed and looked pointedly at her ribcage, she sighed, "At least not on purpose. The Walkers had been chasing me for a while before _Prince Charming_ came to the rescue. I had my knife out and at one point I tripped over something and fell on my knife. I'm not a complete idiot."

"Just clumsy, then?" Daryl asked, grinning at her. He had known that Emerson wasn't going to be comfortable with the group, not matter how much she wanted to be for Matt or how much she'd want to trust them because he did. She was going to be nervous, he knew that. Over the last few days he had realized that she was most comfortable around him when they were picking on each other. He had the feeling that it would be the same thing with the group. He'd pick on her, she'd pick back and before she knew it she would be feeling comfortable with the group. It was like boiling a frog - increase the temperature a little at a time so the little bugger wouldn't notice and jump out.

"Shut up," Emerson muttered before turning back to the group. "I really would have been fine without him. I was just trying to figure out my game plan."

"In a tree, surrounded by Walkers," Daryl threw in without looking up from the deer. "An' how many knives didja have, Em? Seven?" Emerson shot him a playful glare. Daryl turned to look at the group. "Far as I can figure her _game plan _was to sit up there bleeding in the tree and hope the Walkers got distracted and wandered away before she passed out. I saved her life."

Emerson leaned down and pressed a kiss onto the top of Matt's head, silently reassuring him that she would have been fine even without Daryl's help. "The way I remember it I saved your life, Daryl Dixon," she said, shooting him a small smile. "He starts shooting at the Walkers, but it was taking him too long to reload. I sunk a knife into one of their heads that was headed right for you."

"I saw it comin'," Daryl muttered. "I don' need no woman savin' my life."

"What about back at the cabin?" Emerson asked, all playfulness gone from her voice. They hadn't talked about Daryl getting scratched since it had happened. Emerson had monitored him for a fever for the few days after it, they weren't entirely sure if it was just bites that transferred the infection or scratches too. They hadn't talked about it so Daryl hadn't realized that it had worried her as much as it apparently did. He stopped skinning the deer for a moment and reached out, gently punching at Emerson's shoulder, a silent reassurance that he was perfectly okay.

"The cabin?" Beth asked, looking confused. "Where have you been for the last few days?"

"Em's family had a huntin' cabin up on an isolated hill in the middle of nowhere," Daryl explained. "Once _I _took care of all the Walkers around the tree Emerson brought me back to the cabin. When it started snowin' the next two days she refused to let me leave."

"_You _didn't kill the Walkers, _we _did," Emerson said, shooting Daryl a playful angry look. "And don't blame you staying on me. We both know you wouldn't have left anyway, not unless we came with you. You made that clear on the last night," her voice got quieter during the last part, this was meant just for Daryl, not for the rest of the group. "I never did thank you for not leaving without us."

Daryl waved off her gratitude and turned back to the group so that they could finish the story and explain what had brought Emerson, Matt, and the dog to join the group. "On our last night a group of Walkers found the cabin. They surrounded it. Lucky thing was that Emerson's daddy is crazy and she knows how to be prepared an' pack quickly. We managed to pack up a lotta supplies an' get the SUV an' get out of there with nothin' bigger than a scratch or two."

"It was more than a scratch," Emerson said softly. "That Walker could have broken your leg if it had squeezed just a little harder. You're lucky you killed him when you did." Daryl stopped himself from saying that he was lucky she had been in the house with him. He wouldn't have been able to handle the three hungry and determined Walkers by himself. He was about to tell her that he would have been fine without her help when Hershel spoke up, saying that he should take a look at their injuries.

"Emmy stitched them up," Matt said, his voice sleepy, but unable to hide the pride in his voice. "She's an army medic," he yawned, "went to war and everything. She took care of them. She's good like that." Emerson smiled softly down at her brother and whispered that he should try to sleep. She'd wake him up when it was time to eat. But Matt shook his head, "You said we were going to meet new friends tonight and so far all I've met is Carol. I'll sleep at bedtime."

Daryl laughed at the boy before he took it upon himself to make the introductions. "Matt an' Emerson Phillips, an' Lieutenant Dan," he said, nodding at each of his companions in turn before turning to the group. "This is T-Dog, Carol, Beth, Hershel, an' Maggie Greene, Glenn, Lori, Carl, an' Rick Grimes." Emerson had waved at everyone in turn and Daryl was pretty sure that she wasn't going to say anything, but she surprised him.

"It's nice to meet you," she said, her tone shaking only slightly as she made eye contact with each group member in turn. "I promise that we'll be as little of a burden on you as possible."

"If you can keep hunting like you did at your cabin the last thing I would call you is a burden," T-Dog said, nodding toward the now fully skinned deer in front of Daryl. "We haven't eaten this well since we were on the farm."

Everyone tensed a little at that statement. Emerson looked down at Matt in her lap and shrugged. Daryl hadn't said much about the farm, but from what she gathered it had been like their cabin on the hill. They had believed that it was a safe haven and then it turned out that it wasn't. "Well," Lori said, clapping her hands together once, "let's get cooking. It's almost time to head to bed and I'd rather do that with food in my stomach than on empty one."

The group cooked and ate fairly quickly before they started to clear out from around the fire. Emerson looked around, trying to figure out where they went to sleep, she hadn't seen any tents when they approached the fire, she couldn't imagine that the group simply slept on the forest floor at night. Rick must have caught onto her look of confusion because he walked over to her and explained quietly that when they had to abandon the farm they had to leave most of their supplies. "Hell," he said, "we were lucky to get most of the vehicles out at least." He explained now that they were basically on the run they slept in the cars that they had. He said it was a tight fit, but that that could be a good thing since they couldn't risk wasting gas or battery power to turn the cars on and heat them. Emerson asked what they did in terms of lookouts. Rick nodded toward the tallest car, another SUV type vehicle, slightly taller than Emerson's. "We've got a lookout that sits up there all night. Everyone else keeps one of their windows open a crack so that they can hear the lookout yell if something goes wrong." He turned to Carol, "It's your night tonight, right?" The woman nodded, but Daryl stopped her from moving closer to the SUV.

"Nah," he said, shaking his head. "Ya get some sleep tonight. I'll keep watch, I missed my night last week while I was holed up in the cabin." Carol looked as though she was going to argue with him, but Daryl shook his head, "Go to bed, Carol." The woman sighed and nodded before saying goodnight to everyone and heading toward the cars with Lori and Carl. Daryl turned to Emerson and smiled slightly when he saw her struggling under the dead weight of her sleeping brother in her arms. "Ya go to bed too," he said, reaching out and gently taking the sleeping boy from her arms.

"Thank you," Emerson said softly as Daryl carried Matt to the SUV and opened the door to the back seat. Daryl grunted in response as he got the boy settled in the back seat and covered him with a blanket. He left the door open for a moment, looking at the dog and waiting for him to climb in the car. Emerson wanted to tell him to take the dog with him, but she didn't know how he would climb up on the back of the car. "Get in Lou," she said softly, the dog listened to her command and climbed into the car. Daryl shut the door behind him and nodded toward the passenger door, waiting for Emerson to climb in. "If," she said softly, not entirely sure if she wanted to make this offer.

"If what?" Daryl asked her when she didn't say anything else. "If what, Em?" he asked again, his eyes flitting over her face, looking for any hint as to what she was talking about.

"If anyone wants a little more room and wants to sleep in the driver's seat they can," Emerson said with a tense nod. "I know that Rick said that it was a tight fit and I mean, it seems pointless to have a perfectly good empty seat in my car."

Daryl nodded, he understood how hard that was for Emerson to offer it to him. He reached out and briefly brushed his knuckles from her cheek bone down to her chin, following her jaw line. The corners of his lips quirked when his action cause her to bite her lip. He used his thumb to gently pull her lip out from between her teeth. "Good night," he said gruffly, quickly stepping away from her and opening the car door for her.

"Good night?" Emerson said, sounding unsure of herself as she climbed into the seat. Daryl nodded at her and quickly shut the door before he walked away toward the SUV that he would be keeping watch from. Emerson watched him go until she couldn't see him anymore in the dark and then she started to settle in for the night. She was so busy that she didn't notice anyone approaching the vehicle until the driver's side door opened. She almost screamed until she realized that she recognized the man climbing into her car - T-Dog.

"Daryl said that if I wanted more room I could come sleep in here," T-Dog explained softly. Emerson nodded silently and reached into the back seat to grab the man a blanket and pillow. "To be honest, I think he likes the idea of me being in here, so that I can drive if something happens tonight," T-Dog continued to talk. "Thanks," he said, gesturing toward the pillow and blanket before he continued. "Seems to me like you can take care of yourself, but Daryl seems to have concerns."

"Can't say that I blame him," Emerson said softly, thinking about how she had run into the bathroom to save Daryl when she thought that he had walked into a horde of Walkers. "He probably wants someone to babysit me so that if things go wrong I don't get out of the car to try to save someone."

T-Dog studied her for a moment, "The two of you really have saved each other's lives, huh?" he asked. Emerson nodded, and quietly told the man that Daryl had saved hers first, that she was just trying to return the favor. T-Dog nodded, "He saved my life once, you know? Probably saved it more than once, but once that I'm honestly aware of. We were stuck on the highway, the RV was busted and we were trying to fix it when this massive herd of Walkers came upon us. Everyone hid under cars, but one of the Walkers had spotted me, I was trying to get away from it and I got injured. Then the crazy son of a bitch comes out of nowhere and jams an arrow into the sucker's head. Then he covers us with dead bodies and when the Walkers move past us they can't smell us." Emerson stared at T-Dog in surprise, she had known that Daryl was a good guy, great even but he had never told that story. T-Dog nodded at the look of surprise on her face, "He's good like that."

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It had been a couple of hours since everyone had gone to bed and Daryl was struggling to stay awake when he heard something shuffling behind him. He was standing on top of the car and turned around, crossbow leveled and arrow loaded. But he was glad that he didn't pull the trigger because Emerson was standing behind the SUV, her face apologetic and her hands raised above her head in surrender. "I'm sorry," she whispered as she approached the SUV and climbed onto the tailgate, "I didn't mean to scare you."

"An' I told ya to go to sleep," Daryl muttered as he reached out, grabbed her hand, and pulled her onto the roof of the vehicle. "Do ya never listen to me?" Emerson smiled softly at him and sat down on the roof. She gestured for him to sit down too. "Why ain't ya sleepin'?" Daryl asked once they were both sitting down.

"I did for a bit," Emerson said with a shrug. "But then I woke up, I was worried about you out here in the cold all by yourself." She pulled her backpack off her back and reached in, pulling out a blanket. "I thought you might be cold."

"Ya came out here to bring me a blanket?" Daryl asked, eyebrows raised in surprise. "I didn' even hear ya leave the car."

"Climbed out the sunroof," Emerson said with a shrug, "when I was in high school I got very good at sneaking out of houses without being heard. Car's are basically the same thing." It was silent for a moment as Daryl spread the blanket out over both of them. Emerson sighed, shifting slightly closer to him so that they could both be fully covered by the blanket. "T-Dog told me about when you saved his life," she said softly, "that time on the highway."

"I done told him I don' like him tellin' that story," Daryl muttered. "It was nothin' special, anyone woulda done it."

"I don't think so, Daryl," Emerson said softly. "A lot of people wouldn't risk their life to save someone else's. But you seem to make a habit of it. That is something very special."

"What about ya?" Daryl asked her. He continued when he noticed Emerson's look of confusion. "After all ya've been through, ya brought me back to yer cabin, ya came with me here, yer startin' to trust the group. That's special too."

"Who says I'm starting to trust the group?" Emerson asked softly.

"Ya offered to let someone sleep in yer car," Daryl said with a shrug. "Ya actually talked to people durin' dinner." He looked at Emerson for a moment and when she didn't argue with him he chuckled, "It's like boilin' a frog," he said.

"Excuse me?" Emerson asked, shifting slightly so that she could turn her head and make eye contact with Daryl. "It was like boiling a what?"

"A frog," Daryl said with a smile. "When ya boil a frog ya don't drop the frog in boilin' water, it'll jump right out. Whatcha do is ya put it inta a pot of cold water an' slowly increase the temperature. The frog won' notice it's gettin' boiled until it's too late. An' then ya got yerself a boiled frog."

"And I'm the frog in this situation?" Emerson asked, her tone failing to hide her amusement at Daryl's comparison.

"Well ya sure as hell ain't the boilin' water. I got ya talkin' to me, teasing me. An' then others joined the conversation an' ya didn' even notice." Emerson scoffed at him, but she didn't argue with his assessment. Daryl nodded. "Yer gonna be okay here, right?" he asked her.

She was silent for a moment, thinking. She turned to look at him and nodded slowly. "Yeah," she said, her eyes flitting over his face as if she was looking for something specific. "I think so."

"Good," Daryl said with a nod. "Then go to bed."

"I'm not going to leave you out here by yourself," Emerson said, shaking her head. "Remember what you said in the car? I'm stuck with you now? Well then you're stuck with me too."

Daryl sighed, "Fine then," he said, "but yer goin' to sleep out here. Ya need to sleep tonight, cause you'll be drivin' tomorrow." Emerson sighed, but she didn't argue. She wrapped her arms around her knees and leaned her head forward, resting it on top of her knees. She whispered _good night_ to him before she closed her eyes.

Daryl waited until her breathing had evened out and she had fallen asleep before he reached out and pulled her small body closer to his, tucking her under his arm and wrapping the blanket around her back so she wouldn't get cold. "Good night, Em," he whispered.

-.-.-.-.-

When Emerson woke up the next morning she could hear people whispering around her. "We're leaving in about an hour," a woman's voice whispered. "The good thing about living in the cars is that when it's time to leave we don't have much of a camp to pack up." She could hear Daryl make a grunt of agreement. "I'll go get you two some coffee, she should be awake soon," the woman's voice whispered again before she walked away.

As Emerson slowly opened her eyes she wondered why the woman had to go get Daryl coffee, why couldn't he just get it on his own. As she moved, reaching up to wipe the sleep out of her eyes she felt something shift behind her. Her eyes opened quickly and for the second time she found herself leaning against Daryl Dixon. "I'm so sorry," she whispered, quickly moving away from the man and the uncomfortable look on his face. He really didn't like being touched. "I don't know why this keeps happening," Emerson explained. "My only excuse is that I apparently cuddle when I'm cold. I'm sorry." Daryl shrugged, still silent and Emerson was thankful when Carol walked back toward the SUV, two cups of coffee in her hands.

"Oh you're up," Carol said with a pleasant smile on her face. "Good morning. Matt's over by the fire eating breakfast if you'd like to join him. It' nothing special, some stale toasted bread that we had left over from the farm, but it's something."

"Yeah," Emerson said softly, chancing a look at the still silent Daryl, "thanks," she continued, she climbed off the roof and smiled at Carol when the woman handed her the cup of coffee. "Good morning to you too, by the way," she said with a nod as she headed off toward the group and her brother.

Carol handed Daryl his cup of coffee and gave him a pointed look before she looked back toward where Emerson had walked off to. "Don't chase this one away just because you don't want anyone to get close," she warned, looking back at Daryl and silently daring him to argue with her.

He didn't.

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Author's Note:  
Happy Halloween beauties!  
Halloween's my favorite holiday so I gave you a bit of a treat in the form of a very awkward yet sweet by Daryl standards good night at the car.  
What do you guys think? Did you like it? I think they're getting a bit better with each other now.  
Anyway, I want to thank you for taking some time out of your Halloween to read my newest chapter.  
I hope you liked it!  
Special thanks goes to: _SIGK1_, _Your Favorite Freak_, _ehluvr3_, _qlara_, and _scout321_ for adding this story to their favorites list. Special thanks also goes to: _ehluvr3_ and _qlara_ who added this story to their alerts list.  
But the **biggest** of all special thanks goes to those who **reviewed** on the last chapter:  
JDMlvr1: Thank you for your review! Nothing with the group's really happened yet, besides a little bonding, but their there and Emerson hasn't decided to run away yet, so it's all good. I hope you liked this chapter too! Happy Halloween!  
DancingUnderMoonlight18: You laughed out loud! Success! I'm glad you love Matt, I'm in love with the boy, I want a kid brother like him. I hope that you liked this chapter as much as the others and I'll see you back here soon. Happy Halloween, dear!  
Your Favorite Freak: Hello dear! Thank you so much for your review (you made me blush with your compliments!) I'm so glad that you like the story. And I hope that you liked this chapter too. And yeah, I hate when people say he's stupid, he's just a redneck. Anyway... Happy Halloween!  
mrskaz453: Don't worry dear, I'm just glad that you've liked the last few chapters and thank you for reviewing on the last chapter! You know, there's a few of us that believe Emerson should be on the show, maybe we can make a petition and send it to them. I don't think Emerson will knock Carol out, if only because I kind of like her as long as she's not being a bitch or making sexual tension with Daryl. She's better than Lori at least. Anyway, I hope you liked this chapter and have a very Happy Halloween!  
morbidmandee: Well Matt's fitting right in with the group, Emerson's having a bit of trouble though. Thank you for your review dear and I'm glad that you're glad Em and Daryl aren't going at it like rabbits yet. Part of that is because I wanted there to be an actual relationship between them and part of it is because I don't know how to write sex so it can't happen yet. :D Anyway, I hope you liked this chapter. And Happy Halloween!  
Lady of Denial: Thank you! Thank you for your review and thank you so much for thinking I'm doing a good job! I can answer your question sort of while keeping most of it a surprise. So far I'm not planning on bringing the group to the prison, I've got somewhere else planned for them, but I really like the idea of the prison and the prisoners so they might end up their eventually or somehow have it be incorporated. Another thing that I'm really excited about is Merle is coming back, I like him too much to leave him out for long so he's coming back, just different from the show. Anyway, I hope that answered your question without giving too much away, I hope you liked this chapter too, I hope I didn't make you wait too long for this update, and I hope you have a very Happy Halloween!  
SIGK1: Thank you! I'm glad you liked it so far and I hope you liked this chapter too! Thank you for your review and Happy Halloween!  
ResidentGoth: Gahhhhh! I love cuteness. That might be why it took me till now to write a Walking Dead fic. I like cuteness too much, and it's hard to fit that in there with a zombie apocalypse. You're more than welcome for the shoutout ... you keep reviewing I'll keep giving shoutouts! I'm totally going to check out your story once I'm over the worry that it will jinx mine. And I'm really glad I can keep up these regular updates at the moment. It's kind of big for me. Thank you for your review! I hope you liked this chapter and Happy Halloween!  
Gaby de Brabant: Hello dear! Thank you for your review! I'm glad you liked the last chapter and I hope that you liked this one too. Don't worry, I don't have anything BIG or WORRISOME planned for at least a chapter or two. :D And I'll be more than happy to see you on Tumblr! You read all nine chapters in two hours? Guess I should be glad you're obsessed with my story! Thank you so much! Happy Halloween.  
And to the guest that reviewed: thank you so much for taking the time to review. I'm glad you like the story! Happy Halloween!  
Anyway, I'm off to celebrate my favorite holiday. I'm going as a Walker this year so I've got to start my makeup early!  
Have fun and be safe tonight!  
I'll see you back here soon.  
Hugs and kisses,  
Chloe Jane.


	13. Chapter Twelve

Disclaimer: I do not own the Walking Dead, although I'm completely obsessed with it and wished I did. Emerson, however, I do own.

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Check out my tumblr: MissChloeJane.  
I post spoilers. :D

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Chapter Twelve:

Daryl didn't ride with Emerson and Matt that day. Instead her SUV was filled because Carl had wanted to ride with Matt and the dog and Lori wouldn't let Carl ride in a car without her. Emerson wasn't sure if it was Daryl's way of _boiling the frog_ or if he was trying to get some distance from her after she had once again forced him to cuddle with her in her sleep. Maybe it was a little of both. She didn't mind Lori and Carl as much as she thought she would when she saw them heading toward the SUV. Carl and Matt got along well from the start which was a relief. Emerson and Lori had both been worried about that. Carl was five years older than Matt, but they were close enough in age that they might be stuck with each other a lot. Both women had been worried that if they didn't like each other that would make things more difficult than they anticipated.

But in the end they needn't have worried. The boys were thrilled to have each other. Carl seemed to appreciate that he was no longer the youngest member of the group, he was no longer the baby that people could just boss around, he had someone he needed to watch out for now. And it hadn't taken long for Matt to start looking up to Carl as if the kid was the older brother he had never had. It was clear that Carl knew more than Matt did about the Walkers and unlike Emerson who was constantly worried about scaring him too much, Carl answered every question he asked and he didn't try to make it seem nicer than it was just because Matt was young. Matt knew he was younger than Carl, they still had that distinction, but Carl didn't treat him like a baby either, the older boy knew Matt could handle things.

The boys were currently in the back seat, Lou sandwiched between the two of them, talking about what they would be doing right now if people hadn't been infected when Lori spoke up for the first time on the trip. "It's nice," she said softly, not wanting to interrupt the boys' conversation. "This is the first time in a long time that I've heard Carl having a normal conversation about normal things like school, and friends, and soccer. I'd forgotten what conversations like this sounded like."

Emerson smiled and nodded in agreement. She and Matt had had conversations like this, but it hadn't seemed so normal. Because Matt was always asking her if they would ever be able to go back home, would he and his friends be able to go to the pool that summer, where were his friends now, were they alive? There was no talk of Walkers in the conversation in the back seat though, they were simply talking about normal things, things they would do together. There was no wondering what had happened to people they once knew. "Maybe that's the new normal though," she said softly. "Maybe this conversation is abnormal."

"I don't even want to think about that," Lori muttered, shaking her head and rubbing at her stomach. She was showing now, but she wasn't large enough to be ready to pop yet. If Emerson had to guess she'd say about six months or so. "When I first found out about this baby I tried to take enough plan b pills to kill it," she confessed, her voice quiet. "In part I was being selfish, but I also didn't want my child to grow up in this world. It's bad enough that Carl does, that he's had to grow up before his time, but I didn't want a newborn to have to experience that. And I didn't want to put this entire group at risk by having a baby. You can't just tell a baby to be quiet when it's crying and expect it to listen."

Emerson nodded, "So what's the plan once it's born? It's not like your family can just leave the group and go out on your own for our safety. But at the same time, the group probably won't want the baby around if it's going to put them in constant danger." She turned from the road for a second to look at Lori, "I'm trying," she said softly. "But I just don't see a winning side to that dilemma."

"Rick's looking for a more permanent place for us," Lori said with a nod. "Somewhere like the farm where it will be safe, where the baby can cry and you all won't be in danger because of it. The problem is the world is running out of places like that. There are too many Walkers and not enough ammunition or strength to hold them all back. We're constantly on the run from groups of them and I don't see that stopping at any time soon." Emerson nodded and said something about how Rick seemed like a good man, and that if he said he would find Lori a safe place to have their child he would. Lori nodded, "He is a good man," she said. "And he's more than I deserve."

Emerson didn't know what to say to that. Daryl had told her that before Rick joined the group Lori had been involved with his best friend, a man named Shane who hadn't made it off the farm, but he hadn't told her about any of the drama, not that it was her place to know any of it. Still, it was impossible not to pick up on the tension between the husband and the wife. It seemed that they were trying to keep it civil for their son and future child, but things were tense. Emerson was about to change the subject when Lori did it for her, "Daryl's a good man too," the older woman said softly. "It's strange, when I first met him I didn't trust him any further than I could throw him, although that might have had to do with his brother, but he's a good man. You know that."

It hadn't been a question, it had been a statement. But Emerson nodded, "Yes, I know that. He's been good to me and Matt. Better than I would have imagined the first time I saw him in the woods. But he's a good man and," she paused for a moment, "I'm glad that he convinced me to bring Matt and come back with him. He was right, safety in numbers and all that. Besides," she silently jerked her head in the direction of the backseat where the boys were still talking, "it's already been good for Matt."

Lori nodded and smiled at the two boys for a moment. "The way you told the story last night it wasn't so much Daryl that convinced you to come back with him as much as a herd of Walkers."

"That too," Emerson amended with a smile. "But Daryl had already been trying to convince me to come. If given another day or so I might have decided to do it on my own. Lord knows it would have been a little more organized if I had."

Lori turned around and looked toward the trunk of the SUV. "Considering what pressure the two of you were under when you packed I'd say you managed just fine. And it's lucky that the Walkers came when they did." Emerson looked at the older woman with wide eyes, silently wondering if the woman was crazy. Lori chuckled for a moment and shook her head before she explained. "If you had taken that extra day or so that it would have taken for you to make the decision on your own we would have been gone by the time you guys got to the camp. We had waited as long as seemed safe but we had made the decision that we were going to leave this morning, Daryl or no Daryl."

Emerson nodded, "Then I suppose that'll be the first and last time that I ever say that a large group of Walkers is a good thing." Lori smiled at her for a moment before she turned toward the back seat and asked the boys if either of them needed to use the bathroom or were hungry. Emerson smiled, she could tell that Lori was trying to hide the fact that she was hungry and needed to use the bathroom by pinning it on one of the kids. "We can stop if you need to," she said quietly, "I know that babies wreak havoc on your bladder, I wouldn't blame you."

Lori looked out the front windshield toward the truck that Rick was driving. "No," she said, shaking her head. "I won't make us stop for me. I'll hold it."

"Just don't piss in my car," Emerson said, her tone playful. "That seat you're sitting in is my bed at night."

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The group pulled off the main road around four o'clock in the afternoon and carefully picked their way through side roads until they found an old farm house well away from any highways. Emerson watched as the group moved through a practiced routine. Rick, T-Dog, Glenn, and Daryl quickly got out of their cars with their weapons in hand and headed toward the house. She had tucked one of her knives in her boot before she started the drive so she grabbed that and started to climb out of her seat. But, it seemed that Daryl knew her too well because just as she was opening the car door he turned around and looked right at her as he held his hand out, palm facing her, silently telling her to stay where she was.

Emerson huffed slightly as she flopped back into her seat. This was the exact reason that she hadn't wanted to join a group. She hadn't even been here twenty-four hours and she was already feeling useless. Lori seemed to sense her irritation and even more amazingly the woman seemed to understand why she was irritated. "It's not that he thinks you're useless," Lori said softly, her voice soothing. "It's that, if too many people go in there it's just as much of a problem as if only one of them went in there. It's safer if just the four go in there, they've been doing it since we left the farm. It's almost as if they're all reading from the same playbook, if someone else went in with them they would mess up the plays."

"Did Daryl tell you this was why I was apprehensive about joining a group?" Emerson asked, trying to understand how Lori had known that this would bother her.

"No," Lori said, "but let's just say that I know your type. We've had two women like you in the group, the kind that puts knives in her boots," Lori gave the younger girl a pointed look. "Or wants to learn to shoot so that she can help keep watch like Andrea did." Emerson asked who Andrea was. Lori sighed, "She didn't make it off the farm. Maggie's like you too," she added, abandoning the subject of Andrea. "She's never happy to just sit around while the men do what they think is best."

"She shouldn't be," Emerson muttered quietly as she forced herself to wait patiently for the men to come out of the house. It took the men fifteen minutes to come out of the house again and when they did they weren't the cleanest bunch. "Where are the bodies?" Emerson asked Lori as she and the older woman climbed out of the car and moved to the trunk to start gathering the supplies they would need for the night. She assumed that they were messy because they had taken care of any Walkers or dead bodies in the house before the women, Hershel, and the children came into the house, but she would have assumed that they would bring them out of the house when they were done.

"We keep 'em in the house," Daryl said from behind her, she hadn't realized that he had walked toward her car and she jumped in surprise at the sound of his voice. He placed a hand on her shoulder and made a soothing noise at the back of his throat, "It's just me," he said softly, ignoring the curious look Lori was shooting their way. "Yer safe," he added before he quickly moved his hand and explained why the bodies would stay in the house, his voice gruff again, "They're defensive, if a Walker or two find its way into the house the smell of the dead bodies blocks our smells."

"So like when you hid T-Dog under a body?" Emerson asked softly as she allowed Daryl to load her arms up with supplies - she didn't say anything when she noticed he was giving her the light things: pillows and blankets mostly. He nodded and Emerson shivered, not liking the idea of being covered with a dead body. She'd much rather just kill the Walker or two that made it into the house than to hide under a body. Daryl saw the look of disgust on her face and explained that all the bodies were shut into one room, so it wasn't like they would be tripping over them when they were in the house. "Well that's something, then," Emerson said softly, missing her large fire pit for Walker bodies back at the cabin. Daryl nodded toward the house where Matt and Lou were waiting for her, patiently sitting on the front steps. "Our room's on the second floor, at the end of the hall on the right," he said, not making eye contact.

Emerson nodded and turned toward the house as Daryl got some food and water out of the back of the car. "That was weird," Lori said, walking faster so that she could catch up with Emerson. The redhead glanced at the older woman, her eyebrows raised, wondering what was so strange to the woman. "Is he always like that with you?" Lori asked quietly as the two women approached the house.

"Like what?" Emerson asked, confused. "I didn't notice anything different about him, so I guess maybe? Why? What are you talking about?"

"Daryl doesn't like being touched," Lori explained. "And he doesn't really have time to touch other people or to soothe them when they're scared. But he does it with you." Lori paused for a moment. "That, back there at the car was not the Daryl that left the camp before he met you."

Emerson shrugged, she was about to say she had no idea why Daryl treated her differently when Daryl caught up with the women. "Will ya two stop gossipin' like high school girls. It's gettin' dark and we need to cook an' get in the house before that happens."

Emerson nodded and smiled up at Daryl, "Second floor, end of the hall on the right?" she asked him, gesturing toward the pillows and blankets in her hands. He nodded and she quickly walked into the house, stopping on the front steps for a moment to ruffle Matt's hair before she walked up the stairs and down to the room that Daryl had decided they would be sleeping in. It was a decent sized room she decided, there were dark, heavy curtains that could be closed to hide the light. She nodded, it would do. She put their blankets on the floor and moved to the bed to strip the bedding off of it. She didn't mind sleeping on a dead person's bed, but she refused to use their blankets. She shoved them in the closet and smiled when she walked out to find Matt and Lou waiting for her in the room. "Make the bed," she told Matt with a smile, "and then you can come out with me, I'll wait for you on the front steps, okay?" She waited for Matt's nod of agreement before she kissed the top of his head and headed back down to the first floor.

She met Carol in the front hallway, the older woman had a smile on her face. "The water works," she said with a chuckle. "I wouldn't use it to cook or clean with without boiling it. But that means we'll be able to flush the toilets and bathe if we stay here for a bit." Emerson smiled at her, a bath sounded absolutely perfect to her and she was pretty sure that there was a bathroom attached to the room Daryl had picked for them. She knew where she'd be spending the night. "And," Carol continued, "there's three fireplaces in the house, we'll be able to stay relatively warm tonight."

Emerson laughed at the older woman's excitement and reached out, gently patting her arm, "Don't tell me anymore, I'm already going to feel spoiled in this house," she joked before walking out the front door and sitting down on the front steps to enjoy the last of the afternoon sun as she waited for Matt. The women were in the house looking for food that hadn't gone stale that the group could have or getting bedrooms ready for the night. Maggie and Hershel had started a fire on the front yard that they could use to cook their dinner. T-Dog and Daryl were carrying weapons and other supplies into the house, Emerson offered to help them but Hershel called from the fire that she wasn't allowed to do much heavy lifting. He had inspected her stitches that afternoon while the group stopped for people that needed to use the bathroom and while the stitches were clean and well done, any heavy lifting might tear them out. She sighed for a moment before she looked over and saw Rick and Glenn hanging out by one of the cars, poring over something that was spread out over the hood of the car.

"What are you guys doing?" she asked them as she made her way over to the car, waving a silent hello to Glenn's cheerful greeting. "Trying to figure out our next move?" she asked Rick once she got close enough to see that the paper they had been looking at so closely was a map of Georgia. Rick nodded silently, too distracted by the map to talk much, "Where are we?" she asked softly, leaning over the other side of the car hood to look at the map.

"Jefferson," Rick said, pointing to a county about half way up the right side of the map. "We want to keep heading north, toward where it's cooler, but we can't go true north or north east because of herds that we've spotted. We don't want to go south toward Atlanta. So north west is our only option. The problem is that I don't know that portion of the state too well. We want to stick to back roads and small towns. But I don't know."

Emerson's blood ran cold when she heard where they were in the state. A part of her wanted to pretend that she didn't have any information, that she didn't know anything. But she couldn't do that - this wasn't just for the good of the group, but it would be good for her and Matt as well. "I might be able to help," she said softly. Rick and Glenn turned to look at her in surprise. She sighed, "I'm normally not good at things like this, it's not that I'm some great navigator, so don't get your hopes up too much. But I used to go to school at UGA in Athens and I lived in Floyd County," she reached out a drew a line on the map with her finger, connecting Athens with her hometown of Glenwood in the north west region of the state. "I never took the main roads when going home," she said softly, "they always took you through Atlanta. And the traffic was horrible. I always took back roads. Milage wise it was the long route, but it was normally faster because most people didn't use them."

"So that will get us to north western Georgia," Rick said with a nod, talking more to himself than to those in the group. "Then what? Where do we go from there? I suppose we could keep heading north and west, or maybe swing back east but keep going north?"

Emerson cleared her throat and raised her hand, "I have an idea. I'm not sure how well it will work, but it's plausible." Rick turned to look at her and gestured that she should keep going. "Well there's this small private college a town over from my old hometown, it's called Berry College."

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Author's Note:  
And there we go, we have the group's first location.  
A lot of you have been wondering if I was going to bring them to the prison. But I had something else in mind.  
I might incorporate the prison at some point in this story, I really like the idea of it. But for now they're going to Berry College.  
Which, in case you were wondering, is actually a real college in north west Georgia. I'm going to play around with its size a bit to make it work for my story, but it's real.  
I research shit. Just kidding ... but I do.  
I want to thank everyone that stopped by to read this chapter and I hope that even though it was a relatively calm one it didn't bore you to the point where you won't come back to read tomorrow.  
Special thanks goes to: _biancastefani_ who added this story to her favorites list. And to: _mesiliis _who added this story to their alerts list.  
But the **biggest** of special thanks goes to those who **reviewed** on the last chapter EVEN though it was Halloween and they probably had better things to do.  
Brenda: Thank you so much for your review dear! I hope you've liked the more recent updates! Thank you for reading!  
ResidentGoth: It was a fairly effortless transition. The way I figure it the group is still wary of outsiders but Emerson was freely willing to share her supplies with them and Daryl trusted her so the group didn't really need to worry. We should petition AMC for more dialogue for T-Dog. I feel bad for the guy, he's made it further than most black men do in horror related shows or movies, but he doesn't get to talk that much. I'm not a fan of that.  
And I understand the college thing, that was me last year before I graduated and had to get a real job. (Don't graduate by the way, it's a trap.) (My Walker makeup turned out great, I made a kid cry last night. :D) Thank you for your review and I hope you liked this chapter!  
biancastefani: Thank you for your review darling! I really hope you liked this newest chapter. And don't worry, Em's going to realize that Daryl's the one causing the cuddles at some point. I'm already planning it out. As far as the storyline goes I'm kind of just branching off on my own, with a reference every once in a while to what's happening in season three. Like, I'm not sure yet, but I think the Governor's going to make an appearance eventually, once I've gotten a better handle on him. I haven't read the comics, so I don't know about those, but like the one thing I don't want to do is just rewrite an episode and slip Emerson into it so I'm going my own way.  
xzcarlyzx: I'm so glad that you like this story so far. And I want to thank you for your review, your praise made me blush. I know what you mean about people not being able to put their ideas on paper. I've seen so many stories on this site where the idea and the premise are great, but I can't stand the way they're written. I didn't want my story to be one of them. As far as the grammar goes, I know I make some mistakes, but I was an english minor in college and my professors would **kill** me if I messed up too much when writing. Thank you once again for your rare review and I hope to hear from you again soon.  
Gaby de Brabant: I'm glad that you liked the last chapter and I hope you liked this one too! There was more tension between them and people are starting to pick up on it (everyone besides Em and Daryl it would seem). The plan is to get you guys used to daily updates. I can write during work at the moment so that's pretty nice and I've always hated when I get obsessed with a story and the writer doesn't update very often, puts a damper on things so I didn't want to do that to you guys.  
Thank you for finding me on tumblr! I'm glad you liked it. And it's not that I don't like T-Dog. I actually really do, but the writers don't give him any screen time or real dialogue and that makes me sad. English isn't your first language? Where are you from? And it felt amazing to be a Walker. I want to go to Georgia and become an extra on the show so bad just so that I can be like, "hey! I'm a real Walker!"  
And that's all I've got for now. I really hope that you liked this chapter.  
please **review**. I live off the things.  
Hugs and kisses,  
Chloe Jane.


	14. Chapter Thirteen

Disclaimer: I do not own the Walking Dead, although I'm completely obsessed with it and wished I did. Emerson, however, I do own.

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Check out my tumblr: MissChloeJane.  
I post spoilers. :D

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So like I said in my author's note on the last chapter: Berry College is a real place (so is Glenwood)  
They're a bit bigger than they are for my story, but I needed them to be small areas  
so I took advantage of the fact them I'm a writer and can change things.

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On an unhappy side note: I'm leaving today to go visit my grandmother in Between, GA.  
(Yes... there is a place called Between. My grandmother's favorite thing to do is when people ask where they are she goes, "You're in between!" and then starts laughing like a crazy person ... **everytime**)  
(her house is otherwise known as the land where internet goes to die.)  
So I won't be able to post over the weekend.  
The good news for you is that there's also not much to do there which means that I can type to my little heart's content.  
And when I come home I'll have lots of chapters just waiting to be posted.  
Also, depending on how far away it is. I'm planning to go stalk known Walking Dead film locations.  
Maybe I'll meet Norman Reedus and make him fall in love with me.  
(Hey! A girl can dream, right?)

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Chapter Thirteen:

The more Rick and Glenn heard about Berry College the more they loved it. It was a small, private college with only as much as one thousand students, only half of which lived on campus. It sat on the fringe of a small town called Mount Berry and consisted of two thousand acres of land surrounded by tall, thick brick walls and large iron gates. The campus consisted of fields, forests, a small mountain, and a large population of deer that lived in the forests. The best news was that the college campus had never been open to the public and the last Emerson had heard while the radio was still working was that they were evacuating all students on the campus who could feasibly get home. Rick liked that bit of information best because it meant there might be less than five hundred Walkers on the premises. He decided that they would stay at the farm house for a few days, three at the most, and recuperate before they began the trek toward Berry College, the place he was sure would become their new home.

He made Emerson tell the group about it that evening while they sat around the fire eating dinner. It was starting to get dark and Emerson had figured that they would eat inside, but it seemed as though everyone in the group had spent so much time in the cars that they needed some time out in the fresh air, they needed some time outside before they were shut up in a house for the night. She couldn't blame them for that. And she couldn't blame them for being excited when she told them about Berry College. She was careful, she didn't mention that it was near her old hometown, she was hoping that Matt wouldn't remember how close the college had been to home. He did though, once she was finished explaining the college to everyone he looked up from his plate, "Emmy," he said softly, "We're going to have to drive through Glenwood won't we?" he asked softly.

Emerson glanced at her brother for a moment, trying to think of a way to get to Mount Berry without having to drive through Glenwood, but there was no way. Glenwood was a small town, three or four main roads maybe and a few housing developments. Most of the back roads she knew took you right through the town, she couldn't think of a way to get to the college without going through their town. She sighed, "We are baby, we're gonna have to go through Glenwood. Is that okay with you?"

The boy was silent for a moment, thinking about her question. Carl was about to ask what was so important about the town when Matt spoke up again. "Could we drive past the house to see if Mommy, Daddy, and Nana are waiting at the house for us?" he asked his older sister. "Maybe they got Nana in New Mexico but their car broke down before they could drive to the cabin. Maybe they're waiting for us at home. Could we go see?"

"Jesus Christ," Emerson heard Daryl mutter from where he was sitting next to her. She hadn't explained how she knew about the college to the entire group, just Rick and Glenn. Daryl had thought that the small private college would be perfect and he hadn't even thought to ask why Emerson knew about its existence. Now he wished he had. They were going to have to drive through her hometown, the last place she had seen her parents alive and the last place she had seen her parents ever. On top of that her brother wanted to drive past their house to check if their parents were there. He knew it was going to be even harder, but he also knew that Emerson was going to have to say yes to her brother, they would have to drive past the house because she wanted to keep his hope alive. Emerson looked up at Daryl, her red hair falling into her worried eyes as she searched his face for a possible answer to her brother's question. Daryl shrugged, he had no idea what to say to the boy either.

If she said no then he would be mad at her. He would think that she didn't care about their parents, that she had given up on them. But if she said yes they would drive through the neighborhood and Matt would see what had really become of everybody that Emerson had told him were safe. Neither of those were good options. Emerson shrugged and looked down at her brother, "Maybe," she said with a sigh. "We'll have to see if we have enough gas and time to do that, okay? First we need to make sure that the college is a good place to live. It's going to be winter soon, do you really want to sleep in the car in the snow?" Matt shook his head, an uncomfortable look resting on his face. Emerson laughed and pulled him closer to her so that she could press a kiss onto the top of his head, "Exactly," she said, "Me neither. I want to be warm and safe during the winter. So we'll see about checking the house okay?"

"What if they're stuck there all winter?" Matt asked, really lighting on the idea that his parents and grandmother were holed up in their old home waiting for their children to come save them. "What if they're starving?" he asked, his voice higher pitched as his panic began to grow.

"Hey, hey, hey," Emerson breathed softly, pulling her younger brother into her lap and wrapping her arms around him, swaying his body back and forth in a soothing motion. "You know Dad," she whispered, her mouth close to her brother's ear. "You know how tough he is, they're not ever going to starve. Dad's smart, he'd find a way to get food right? He got us enough food at the cabin, he'll be able to do it at the house too."

The rest of the group had gone back to their dinner and conversations once they were sure that Matt wasn't going to start wailing and endanger them. But Daryl watched the brother and sister in amazement as she continued to whisper to him and he calmed down even further. He wondered how many times Emerson had to calm her brother down this way, how many times she had to lie to him and tell him that she was sure their parents were okay when she knew the truth, knew that they weren't remotely okay. He reached out and gently patted the young boy's cheek, getting his attention. "Yer parents are jus' fine," he muttered, his voice gruff. "Don' ya worry about them. Remember how mad Em was when we got to the cabin and ya hadn't listened to 'er, when ya left the house at night?" Matt nodded, his eyes wide, he did remember that night, Emerson had been so mad at him. "Think about how angry yer parents would be if ya guys put yerselves in danger to save 'em," Daryl said, watching the boy's eyes get even wider. "Pretty angry?"

"Very very angry," Matt agreed with a nod. "They would be so angry. We should see if it's safe before we go to the house, Emmy." Emerson sighed, her brother was still determined to drive past the house. At least now thanks to Daryl it wasn't so urgent, he wouldn't expect them to drive through the neighborhood on their way to the college, she still had time to think of a way to explain to her brother what had really happened to their parents. When Matt buried his head in her shoulder again she pressed a kiss to the top of it before she made eye contact with Daryl and mouthed the words _Thank you_ to him over her brother's head. He gave her a curt nod and waved off her thanks as if he hadn't really done anything to help her out.

Matt was quiet throughout the rest of dinner and when the group put out the fire and started heading toward the house Emerson picked him up and carried him, whispering to him that she was going to heat him up some water and he could take a bath before they went to bed. Matt who normally argued about baths didn't complain, a sign of how tired he was and Emerson couldn't help but smile down at him when he asked if he could cuddle with Lou until the bath water was ready. If she had been worried about what learning that they were going to drive through their old hometown had done to Matt she had apparently not needed to. Matt was going to be just fine. She set some pots they had found in the kitchen to boil on one of the fireplaces and she, Matt, Carl, and Lou hung out in the living room, playing on the floor until the water was hot. Daryl nodded at her and picked up the two biggest pots, leaving small ones for her to carry up the stairs and they brought them to the bathroom.

As Daryl poured the water into the bathtub and made sure that it wasn't too hot for Matt, Emerson dug through the cupboard under the sink and returned successfully with a bottle of shampoo and conditioner as well as some soap. "You're going to smell like a very pretty flower, Matty," she said with a laugh at the disgusted look on her brother's face. "That doesn't sound good to you?" she asked. Matt shook his head and told her that he didn't want to smell like a girl. She laughed again, "Get in the tub, Matt. And if you don't come out smelling clean I'll send you back in there." She turned to look at Daryl as he was leaving the bedroom. "You can take a bath next if you want," she offered. "You're pretty dirty."

Daryl turned around to see a soft smile resting on her lips, telling him that she had been joking about him being dirty. He was dirty, but she hadn't meant her statement as an insult. "I'll take one after ya," he said with a nod. "Ya smell worse than one of them Walkers in the front livin' room." He chuckled and ducked when Emerson threw a pillow from the bed at his head. He picked it up and walked back into the room, advancing on Emerson until he had her pinned against the wall. "Don' start somethin' ya can't finish," he warned softly before he threw the pillow back on the bed and left the room.

Emerson smiled after him before she moved to the bag she had brought in from the car with extra clothes in it. She was about to lay out some pajamas for Matt to change into when there was a knock on the door. She looked up to see Beth standing in the doorway, her blonde hair shiny in the candle light. "What can I do for you?" Emerson asked the young girl with a soft smile on her face.

"Um, T-Dog and Glenn are keeping watch on the widow's walk on the roof tonight," Beth explained, walking further into the room so that Emerson would be able to hear her a little better. "Daryl said that you had brought some more extra blankets and some warm winter clothes from the cabin. I was wondering if you could go out to the SUV to get some for them. T won't fit in any of your dad's clothes, but he could use a blanket and Glenn could have a sweatshirt or something." Emerson nodded, but apparently her reaction was too slow because Beth continued, "I mean, if it's too late or dark they'll just make do until tomorrow, but I figured it was worth a try."

"No," Emerson said, shaking her head. "It's no trouble at all. Just let me get the keys from Daryl and then we can go get them. Do you want to come? We could probably do with some more blankets for people in the house anyway." Beth nodded and the two women left the room. Emerson found Daryl down on the first floor helping Rick and Hershel nail large boards across the back door so that it couldn't be opened from the outside and asked him for the keys to the SUV. Daryl was concentrating on the job at hand and didn't even seem to hear her question as he handed them over to her. Emerson smiled at Beth and the two women quickly headed toward the front door.

It wasn't until five minutes later that Daryl remembered that Emerson had even asked him for something. "What did she want?" he asked Rick as the three men moved on to nailing boards across the windows in the kitchen that didn't have any curtains to keep any light on the inside from attracting Walkers on the outside. The good news there were only two windows that needed to be taken care of, all the other windows on the bottom floor had curtains or rugs hanging in front of them and had already been nailed shut. Rick was about to shrug and tell Daryl that he didn't remember either when the walkie-talkie attached to his waistband crackled to life.

"Umm guys," Glenn's voice came through the walkie-talkie. "Why are Emerson and Beth walking out alone to the cars? Did any of you know about that? Oh shit!" the young Asian's voice wasn't calm anymore, it was tense and worried. "There's a Walker. Shit guys! There's a Walker!"

Daryl, Rick, and Hershel stared at each other in surprise for a moment before they sprang into action. "Stay here, Hershel," Rick growled when the older man tried to head toward the front door. He turned to look at Daryl, "No one goes out after dark, Beth knows that!" He rushed toward the front hallway and grabbed the tire iron that was waiting by the door. Daryl silently grabbed his crossbow, he didn't say anything, but he was mad at himself. He didn't really care about what happened to Beth in that moment, just Emerson. She had asked him for the keys to the SUV and he had been so distracted by the boards and the door that he had handed them off to her without even thinking to ask why she needed them. If something happened to the girl it would be his fault.

"Oh shit," Glenn's voice crackled over the walkie-talkie again and for a moment Daryl thought that something bad had happened, but it registered with him that the tone of Glenn's voice had shifted from tense and worried to amazed and the tiniest bit proud. Daryl and Rick had just made it onto the front porch and they couldn't see what was happening by the cars, but the lookouts with night vision goggles could. "You should see Emerson!" Glenn's voice was saying as the two men on the ground sprinted toward the direction of the cars. "She's a natural at this!"

By the time they made it to the SUV it was all over. Beth was climbing out of the backseat where Emerson had shut her in the moment she heard the Walker approaching them and Emerson was wiping the blood off of the blade of her knife on the shirt of the Walker that was laying dead at her feet. Daryl could just barely make out the now familiar knife wound in the Walker's head from where the knife had been jammed through its skull and then twisted around just to be safe before it was pulled out. Emerson glanced up at the two men and gave them a cautious smile, "You're a little late for the fun boys, maybe next time?" She didn't wait for their response, instead she turned toward the backseat and picked up a load of pillows, blankets, and extra warm clothes.

"Fuck," Daryl cursed before he reached out and grabbed Emerson's arm and jerked her body around to face him. The movement forced her to drop what she was carrying and she stared at him with wide surprised eyes as he pulled her into his arms, crushing her face against his chest. "Ya could've died!" he practically yelled as he pushed her body away from his so that he could inspect her for any cuts, scrapes, or bites. "We don' go out after it gets dark! Ya had that rule for Matt back at the cabin now ya need to listen to it. Did ya even think about what could've happened to ya? What if it had bit ya? What if ya didn' have yer knife? Why are ya so stupid?"

"Umm guys?" Glenn's voice came through the walkie-talkie. "You think you want to take the yelling inside? We can hear you from up hear." Rick nodded and glared at Emerson and Beth as he jerked his head toward the house, silently telling them to get back into the house. Daryl reached around Emerson's shoulders and tucked her small frame under his arm. He didn't know how to explain to her that he wasn't angry at her, but at himself for not being able to keep her safe. He didn't have the words to tell her that now he was just relieved that she was safe and okay. Glenn came back on the walkie-talkie for a moment, "By the way, Em, you went Xena Warrior Princess on that Walker! It was great!" Daryl's glare shifted back and forth between the roof of the house and the redhead who couldn't keep the grin off her face.

Rick waited until the group was safely in the house with the door locked before he rounded on Emerson and Beth. "I know you're new to the group, Emerson, but we have rules here. One of which is that we don't go out after dark, even if we have a buddy. Please don't do that again." Emerson nodded and tried to step away from Daryl, but the taller man would not let her escape from under his arm. Rick turned on Beth whose father had his arm wrapped around her shoulders. "Beth," Rick said, his voice stern, "you know the rules. What were you doing out there?"

Beth looked like she was about to cry under the gaze of the three men so Emerson sighed and decided to take the blame. "It's my fault," she said softly. "I was worried about Glenn and T-Dog up on the roof in the cold. We still had extra blankets and warm clothes in the SUV so I decided to go get them for people to use them if the needed them. Beth didn't want me to go out on my own so she agreed to come with me. It was stupid and I didn't think. The only thing Beth did wrong was agree to come with me. But nothing happened, no one got hurt, and as long as Daryl's yelling didn't draw any other Walkers to the house we should be fine. We got lucky this time and there won't be a next time." She turned to look at Hershel, it was difficult because Daryl still seemed determined to hold her pinned to his side. "Hershel I'm sorry for endangering your daughter, it won't happen again." Hershel didn't quite look like he believed her, Beth still looked like she was about to cry and he had a feeling it was because this had all been her fault, but he nodded and thanked Emerson for her apology.

Emerson stared at Rick, waiting for him to say anything else. He nodded, "It won't happen again," he said. "Now go bring some warm clothes and blankets to the guys on the roof." He turned to look at Daryl and Hershel, "We should finish boarding up the windows in the kitchen before we forget. And then I suggest everyone head off to their rooms and go to bed."

Emerson nodded and tugged away from Daryl, preparing to go up to the roof before tucking Matt into bed. But Daryl grabbed her arm around her wrist and tugged her back to him. "Don' ya go to bed 'til I get up there," he said. "We need to talk. There's warm water in the bath for ya." Emerson was oddly touched by that and some of her anger at the harsh man dissipated as he finally let go of her and let her walk away from him.

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Author's Note:  
Hey guys! What do you think of this last chapter?  
I hope you loved it as much as I do. Because I had a lot of fun with it.  
Anyway, you guys have been great as far as support goes, so thank you so much for that.  
Special thanks goes to: and _sarbear101 _who added this story to their favorites list. And to: _Heartless03-2003, _, and _sarbear101_ who added this story to their alerts list.  
But the **biggest** of all special thanks goes to those who **reviewed** since the last time I posted. So **thanks**.  
ResidentGoth: Hahaha, I love how excited you get over the fact that I research things and you know them! It's adorable. Now seeing as I now know this is your homestate I'm going to hope I don't make you angry by playing around with things. For instance, pretty sure Glenwood's bigger than I'm going to make it. And I know for a fact that Berry's bigger (a lot bigger) but I needed to force it to be small, hopefully that's okay. And don't be surprised if I do start private messaging you about GA. I like when things are right.  
I'm glad that you liked the last chapter and I hope that you liked this one too. I've typed up a couple of chapters ahead of where you guys are and Emerson and Daryl are still just as clueless ... though ... things start happening.  
Humans vs. zombies sounds amazing! I wish my town did things like that!  
Isopt: Hello again! Thank you so much for your review! I'm glad that you like the story enough to wish the chapters were longer. It's a catch-22 though. If I write longer chapters you guys don't get daily updates. And from what I gather daily updates are pretty cool. Though, with each chapter I post they are getting gradually bigger. So you might get both eventually. I hope that you liked this chapter as much as the others!  
xzcarlyzx: Another review from you? You must really like this story! I'm glad. Thank you so much for that review! And I'm glad that you like the dynamic between Daryl and Em. I was worried that it was going to go too slow and that people were going to get angry with me, but let's face it - Daryl's not the type to do relationships quickly and after what she's been through neither is Emerson. The relationship just kind of has to happen without them noticing it for it to work. And I'm glad you liked the prologue, that was almost more for me than the readers, I needed to focus my mind on where this story was going and explain their dynamic right off the bat. But I'm glad people liked it.  
Mrsj2779: Thank you so much for your review! I'm so glad that you like Emerson! I've found that there are very few strong female characters in this fandom, at least as far as OCs go so I was determined to create one.  
JDMlvr1: Thank you so much for your review darling! I'm glad that you liked the last few chapters and I hope that you like this one as well. And yes, Daryl's turning soft, just doesn't really know how to show it yet (or probably ever.)  
Biancastefani: Yup, they're sharing a room. It's much more fun that way. :D And yeah, I'm not exactly a fan of Lori on the show, but I figure she can't be all bad. She's just trying to do what's best for her and her family I guess.  
Is it too late to wish you happy birthday? Because Happy Birthday! I hope that I got this out to you with enough time for you to still read it on your birthday! And no, thank you for following me on tumblr! That made me happy.  
: Hello dear! Thank you so much for your review and I'm glad that you "LOVE LOVE LOVE," my story! That makes me so happy! I can't believe that you just read all the chapters back to back, how long did that take you? And you're more excited for this chapter than the next episode? That's some heavy praise right there, I almost cried with happiness. I hope I didn't disappoint you!  
JerZeeSkyLine: Thank you so much for your review! I'm glad that you're still reading and that you're enjoying the story! I hope that you liked this chapter as well! And I will see you on tumblr, dear!  
And that's it for now. Once again I'm sorry that I won't be able to post over the weekend.  
But I'll be back by Monday at the latest (maybe Sunday if you guys review a lot. I live off of reviews)  
And hey, if you follow me on Tumblr send me a message sometime, I'd love to hear from you.  
Hugs and kisses,  
Chloe Jane.


	15. Chapter Fourteen

Disclaimer: I do not own the Walking Dead, although I'm completely obsessed with it and wished I did. Emerson, however, I do own.

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Check out my tumblr: MissChloeJane.  
I post spoilers. :D

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I'm so sorry about the delay guys! I got back home and to the internet at midnight last night.  
I needed to sleep, but I woke up early this morning to post this before work.  
I hope you love it!

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For those of you that were wondering ... I did not see any of the cast. But I was talking to one of  
my cousins about The Walking Dead and found out that she met and hugged Norman Reedus  
at DragonCon last year. So since one of my cousins is a bigger nerd than I am I have one degree of separation with the guy.

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Show of hands for anyone that cried during last night's episode?  
Without giving too much away for those who haven't seen it yet:  
T-Dog, Lori, Carl, and Rick all made me cry last night.  
Bawled like a baby actually.

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Chapter Fourteen:

When Daryl finally got up to the bedroom they were staying in Matt had been tucked in and was sleeping in the middle of the bed with Lou laying down at the foot of it. Emerson had bathed, changed into some warm pajamas and even heated up some water for him so that he could take a shower too. "I figured you'd want to be clean before bed," Emerson said with a shrug from where she was sitting in a small armchair by the dresser. She was using the candle on the dresser to look at a book in her lap. She held it up so that Daryl could look at it when she saw his curious look. It was her scrapbook from the cabin, "I can't believe you packed this for me," she said softly, amazed that Daryl had even thought to do that. Daryl shrugged, uncomfortable with the subject. Emerson smiled softly at him and nodded toward the bathroom, "Go take a bath, we'll talk when you get out."

"No," Daryl said firmly. "We'll talk before." He had a feeling that Emerson planned to be asleep by the time he got out of the bath and he wasn't about to let the redhead get out of talking about what had happened that evening. "Ya were stupid," he said bluntly, looking her right in the eye so that she would understand how serious he was. "An idiot, even. Ya don' just run outside after dark for extra blankets, yer smarter than that."

"The boys were freezing up there on the roof," Emerson interrupted, explaining her actions. "If they're gonna spend all night out there keeping us safe the least I can do is make sure that they're warm."

"Ya should have told me ya were goin' out there," Daryl muttered angrily.

"Why?" Emerson asked. "So that you could go out there and protect me from the big, scary, Walkers? News flash, Dixon, I've been protecting myself from Walkers without your help for the last year. I needed your help in the woods, I may have needed your help at the cabin, but that doesn't mean that I need you all the time. That I want you to protect me anymore. I am capable of taking care of myself."

"Don' ya get the point?" Daryl growled, moving closer to the girl as if his proximity would help him get his point across. "Now that yer with a group ya don' have to take care of yerself all the time. Ya have people like me an' Rick who will take care of ya. We don' think yer useless or that ya can't protect yerself. We just don' want ya to take stupid, unnecessary risks. We don' want to protect ya all the time, but we don' want ya puttin' yer safety as well as the group's safety at risk. What would have happened if we hadn't known the front door was open an' unlocked and more than one Walker came by. What if one of 'em got in the house? What if it found Matt?" He knew that using Matt was a low blow, but he needed to get his point across to the girl, to get her to understand how incredibly stupid she had been that night.

"Oh," she said softly, turning her head to look at the boy who was sleeping calmly on the bed, completely unaware of the drama that had gone on while he was in the bath. Tears instantly sprang to her green eyes. "I - I hadn't even t-thought of t-that," she stuttered as the tears began to slide down her cheeks. "I hadn't e-even r-realized t-that there was a r-risk of t-them getting in t-the house. I -I'm such a b-bad s-sister."

Daryl shoved his hands in his back pockets, uncomfortable with the crying woman sitting in front of him. He hadn't meant to make her cry. That had not been his agenda. And now that she was he wasn't sure what to do exactly. "Yer not a bad sister," he said, taking another step closer to her so that he could pat her awkwardly on the top of her head. "Yer really not," he said. "Ya just need to think a little more about what ya do and who it could impact. Just think next time, Em." Emerson nodded and laughed a bit at herself as she reached up to wipe the tears away from her cheeks, she shook her head at her own stupidity and told Daryl that he should go take a bath if he didn't want to be using cold water. Daryl nodded and patted the top of her head one more time, "An' ya should go to bed," he said, jerking his chin toward her bed. "It's been a long day."

When Daryl got out of the bathroom Emerson had abandoned her spot in the chair for a spot on the bed. He looked over at her and her eyes were closed, she seemed to be asleep, but she had left the candle burning for him. He quickly and quietly grabbed one of the pillows off the bed and a blanket and moved to lay them on the floor when Emerson's voice stopped him. He turned to look at her and could just barely make out her green eyes in the flickering candle light. "What are you doing?" she asked him, her tone sleepy.

"Goin' to bed," Daryl said as he laid the blanket down on the floor and started to lay down on top of it. "Ya should be sleepin' already." He put the pillow down on the ground and put his head down. He heard Emerson say his name, but he turned over onto his side and closed his eyes, ignoring her. There was movement behind him and a moment later Emerson flopped down on the floor next to him, pillow and blanket in hand. "What are ya doin'?" he asked, irritated.

"If you're gonna sleep on the floor than so am I," Emerson said softly. Daryl watched as she silently tucked her arm under the pillow and closed her eyes. "Of course," she sighed as she shifted, trying to find a comfortable spot on the floor, "the bed is more comfortable. And there is enough room for all of us on it." Daryl looked at her, his gaze tense. Emerson sighed, he was thinking about the last two nights when she had cuddled with him. "I'll stay away from you," she promised. "Matt's in the middle. We'll be on either side. I promise to behave."

"That's the last of my worries," Daryl muttered before he sighed. The bed would be more comfortable than the floor and judging by the look on Emerson's face, the stubborn set of her jaw, she wasn't going to get back on the bed unless he did. "Fine," he said, getting up and taking the side of the bed that was closest to the door. "Ya win. Get in bed." Emerson smiled and happily got back into the bed. It was only once they were both comfortable with Emerson's arm wrapped protectively around Matt that Daryl spoke again. "Yer not a bad sister," he said, hoping that she would believe him. "The kid would be lost without ya."

Emerson sighed and opened her eyes so that she could try to look at Daryl. "But sometimes I can't help but wonder if it would be better for Matt if he had a different sister, someone more like Carol maybe. I'm not very good at the mothering thing." Daryl raised his eyebrows, from what he had seen Emerson was great with her younger brother, she didn't have enough faith in herself. She smiled softly and lifted her hand so that she could run her fingers through her brother's hair. "I have to try to be a good," she paused, trying to find the right word, "parent for him. I am constantly worried about what my actions might do to him and yet, I do stupid things all the time that put him in potential danger, like tonight. My parents should have never put me in charge of him. What were they thinking? I wasn't ready for a kid."

Daryl was quiet for a moment before he spoke up. "Ya could be a lot worse," he finally said, thinking of Merle. "I love my brother," he said, he didn't want her to think that he didn't. "He basically raised me. My ma was a crack whore an' my dad was," he shook his head, not ready to get into that part of his past yet. "Well my brother raised me, but he didn' know how to be a parent neither, spent more time in juvie or prison than he spent with me. Yer here for Matt, ya've been here, yer doin' the best you can an' it's enough. It don' feel like it, but it is."

Emerson was silent for a moment and Daryl thought that she had fallen asleep. But a second later her heard her sniff and he realized that she had started crying. He didn't mention that he knew she was crying and she didn't mention that for the first time Daryl had truly opened up to her about his past. She sniffed back some more tears before she finally spoke. "And I think that means you get a question," she joked, her voice clogged with tears. "You can use it whenever you want between now and tomorrow night."

"I didn' know I had time limits for my questions!" Daryl joked, trying to lighten the mood a bit. "Ya never explained that in yer rules. I say it don' count."

"It does too count," Emerson said, smiling through her tears now. "My game, my rules. You don't like it? Don't play anymore."

Daryl chuckled and told her that he would have to think about his question. She had laughed quietly before snuggling deeper into her pillow and telling him goodnight. He waited until her breathing had evened out, signifying that she had finally fallen asleep before he asked his question, knowing that she wouldn't hear it and thankful for that. "If the world hadn' ended, would ya even consider spendin' yer time with a guy like me?"

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When Emerson woke up the next morning she felt a bit of panic. The sun was filtering in through the shutters and the now opened curtains and she had apparently rolled away from Matt in the middle of the night. That wasn't what was causing her panic, that was normal, she wasn't really the type to cuddle so once Matt was asleep she usually rolled away from him. No, what caused her panic was that Matt was gone and in his place there was a long, muscled body wrapped around her back, the man's arm resting on her stomach. She tensed instantly, for a moment she was brought back to her time with Darren's group. This had been a regular occurrence back there, maybe she had never left, maybe all the time she had spent with Daryl was just a dream. What if she had never gotten out of Darren's group. The man must have felt her tense because he shifted so that his mouth was next to her ear. "Yer fine," Daryl said softly, his voice calm. "Nothin's wrong. Matt's safe downstairs, eatin' breakfast with Carl. Yer safe. I'm gonna move now," and then with careful patience Daryl slowly moved away from her, being careful not to make any quick movements and not to touch her unnecessarily at the same time.

Once he had moved away from her fully Emerson rolled over so that she was laying on her back, staring up at the ceiling. Her breathing was heavy and she was trying to remind herself of everything Daryl had just said. She was safe, she wasn't with Darren's group anymore. That was just a memory, Daryl would make sure that wouldn't happen again. She was safe. "Fuck," she whispered, turning her head to the side so that she could look at Daryl while still laying on her back. "I'm sorry," she said, trying to force her breathing to slow down.

"Yer sorry?" Daryl asked, raising his eyebrows at her. "I'm the one that scared ya. I'm sorry. Ya behaved last night an' I didn't." He was silent for almost a full minute, his eyes flitting over her face, studying her. "Didja think ya were back with Darren?" he asked quietly, referring to the moment when she had tensed in his arms.

She nodded, it was too late to pretend that it hadn't scared the shit out of her. She rolled over onto her side, the movement bringing her closer to Daryl on the bed. "For a minute I thought that you had been a dream, that I was still back there and the safe feeling I have with you was just a very nice dream. That I had finally woken up from it and I was back in hell."

"We're all in hell now," Daryl said, his tone grim for a moment before his face softened. He reached out and gently tucked some of her hair behind her ear, he didn't look comfortable with the action, Emerson had the feeling that Daryl didn't have much practice with being gentle. "I won' let anythin' like that happen to ya again, ya hear?" he asked, his blue eyes dark with his intensity and honesty. "Yer never gonna wake up afraid of that again, not when I'm around."

Emerson smiled softly. She wanted to believe him, she knew that he believed what he was saying. But it wasn't really something he could make a promise about. In their old lives people could make promises like that, they could promise their loved ones, their children, their friends that they would keep them safe. But in this new world you couldn't make those promises, you had no way of knowing that you would be there the next day to keep that promise. She sighed, she couldn't tell Daryl that, he seemed to truly believe that he could keep that promise. "I know," she said softly. "Thank you." And then as if they both realized that they had been laying in bed whispering to each other like a couple they quickly broke eye contact and climbed out of the bed. Emerson was too busy being embarrassed to even realize that this time she hadn't forced Daryl to cuddle with her in her sleep. He had been the one to instigate it, his arm had been wrapped around her. That fact went completely unnoticed by her as she quickly grabbed her clothes and went to the bathroom so that she could change.

She barely looked at Daryl once she left the bathroom, opting instead to stare at her feet as she put her shoes on and then headed out of the room to the kitchen. "Hey Matty," she greeted when she walked into the kitchen. Her brother smiled up at her and moved over on the bench so that she could sit beside him. "How'd you sleep, buddy?"

"Really good, Emmy," the boy said as he handed her a bowl of oatmeal. "When I woke up Daryl said that Rick wanted him to go hunting today, that the meat we brought wasn't going to last long with a group this big and that we should stock up. Daryl said that I could go with him."

"Oh he did, did he?" Emerson asked, shooting Daryl a pointed look as the man walked into the kitchen for breakfast.

"I said I'd take ya with me if yer sister said it was alright," Daryl said, a stern look on his face as he looked at the boy. "Don' go around tellin' her I said ya could come. I don' need ya gettin' me in trouble. I do that jus' fine on my own." Emerson smiled at the last part of Daryl's statement and turned back to look at her brother, trying to decide if letting him go hunting was a smart idea. Daryl sat down at the table across from her, "Don' see the point in waitin' for yer dad to teach the kid to hunt," he said softly, Emerson nodded - they'd be waiting a while for that to happen. "I was his age when I first went huntin'," Daryl said with a shrug, "might as well teach 'im too."

Emerson nodded and turned back to her brother, "Okay," she said softly. "Sounds like a plan to me." She couldn't stop the smile from spreading across her face at her brother's cheer of delight. "On one condition," she said, her voice stern as she leaned closer to her younger brother. His happiness disappeared right away, he thought she was going to say something like he wasn't allowed to bring a weapon or something like that. She narrowed her eyes and forced herself not to smile at him, "You don't come back until you've bagged a deer."

Daryl smiled as Matt cheered and mock saluted his sister, "Yes ma'am!" the little boy cheered before he ran upstairs to start getting ready. Emerson smiled after him until he couldn't be seen anymore. He watched her, studied her face as the smile fell from her lips and she turned back to her food, no longer really interested in it, but she swallowed, forcing herself to eat it. She knew that during these times it wasn't right to waste any food.

"Ya can come with us, ya know," Daryl said softly, trying to alleviate some of her stress and worry. "Yer pretty good at huntin' and it would make ya worry less about the kid." Emerson shook her head, she trusted Daryl, Matt would be safe with him. Daryl nodded, "We'll be back before sundown," he said, his tone reassuring . "Nothin's gonna happen to the boy."

"I know," Emerson said with a nod. "I know." She was fine after breakfast, she helped wash some of the dishes and even offered to take a day shift up on the widow's peak, looking for Walkers. She forced herself not to hug Matt too tightly when he and Daryl left for the day, forced herself not to hug Daryl when he paused in front of her to tell her that everything was going to be fine, forced herself not to run after her brother and Daryl as they headed for the woods behind the house. It was only after they left that she allowed herself to admit just how worried she was about them.

But she didn't have time to be worried for long. She had a shift to take so she headed up to the roof where she spent the day looking for Walkers. It seemed that at night they had two people on the roof to keep each other from sleeping, but during the day there would only be one. She spent her entire day watching the woods surrounding the house, not only for Walkers but for Daryl and Matt. It was a quiet day, at one point she thought she saw a Walker in the woods, just one, but it didn't come near the house, it turned away instead.

Maggie and Carol came up to relieve her shortly before sunrise, but Emerson refused to leave the widow's walk until Daryl and Matt came home. "They're going to be just fine," Carol said softly when she saw the tense set of Emerson's jaw and the way the young girl's eyes kept darting towards the darkening woods. "When Daryl says that he'll be back he means it," Carol soothed.

"Yeah," Emerson said with a nod. "Didn't he say that before when he went hunting and was gone for almost a week?"

"But he brought you and Matt back," Maggie said as if that was some great piece of news. "They're going to be fine. Just like you were." Emerson sighed, she wanted to believe them, but for some reason the only thing she could think of was them getting attacked by Walkers and never making it back to the house, and if they did she'd have to kill them. Or worse, they got lost and the group decided to leave without them. Emerson wouldn't allow it, she wouldn't leave the house even if it was being attacked by Walkers. She would stay until they got back.

They made her worry for another thirty minutes after sunset before Maggie who had taken out the night vision goggles spotted them coming out of the woods. "What?" Emerson asked, grabbing the goggles from Maggie and looking around wildly, "Are they okay? Are they injured? Can I go out to meet them?" she didn't wait for an answer. She thrust the goggles back at Maggie and ran down the two flights of stairs to the first floor, where ignoring the fact that Rick had told her not to leave the house after dark she threw open the front door, remembering to close it after her so the light from inside wouldn't attract Walkers, and ran across the yard to where Daryl and Matt were approaching. "Oh my boys!" Emerson called out softly once they were within hearing range. "What took you so long to get back?" she asked as she dropped down to her knees and held her arms open for her brother.

"You told me not to come back until I had bagged a dear," Matt said with a grin as he pointed to Daryl who was carrying two deer, several rabbits, and some squirrels. Emerson stood up and smiled at the man. "I listened Emmy, I bagged a deer. Daryl's carrying it though because I was dragging it on the ground and he says that's not good." The little boy turned to Daryl, "Can I carry it to the house and show the others?" he asked, his tone high-pitched with excitement.

"Yer gonna carry it correct?" Daryl asked, his voice and face stern. The boy nodded and so Daryl lowered the smaller of the two deer onto the boy's shoulders. "Then get goin'," he said, nodding toward the house. He waited until Matt had started to trot away to turn to Emerson. "Ya got a hug for me too?" he asked. Emerson looked at him for a moment before she practically tackled him to the ground. "Good Lord, Woman," Daryl grunted as he dropped the deer and other animals to the ground so that he could wrap his arms around Emerson. "We've only been gone a day. I told ya everythin' was gonna be fine. Whatcha so worried about?"

"You told me you were going to be home by sundown!" Emerson said, not leaving Daryl's arms, but leaning back enough that she could hit the back of his head. "You told me you'd be back before dark. Does this look like before dark to you, Daryl Dixon? Because it doesn't to me. I was so worried!"

"I've told ya time an' time again not to worry about me, Em," Daryl said as he put her back down on the ground and picked up the dead animals. All the same, as they headed back to the house Daryl wrapped his arm around her shoulders and he could not keep the smile off his face.

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Author's Note:  
Once again guys, I'm so sorry for the delay.  
But I hope that you liked (or **loved**) this chapter.  
I gave you guys some interaction to make up for the fact there were no updates this weekend.  
I hope it was worth the wait.  
I want to thank each and every one of you that stopped by to read this story and especially this chapter.  
But special thanks go to: _Nixie Sin_, _gabby871_, _EldestDurk_, _xTeddyBear312, _, _lovestoryfreak_, and _PrefersFiction_ who added this story to their favorites list. And to: _Nixie Sin_, _mac-and-cheese417_, _valeries26_, _Alisialy_, _CarlaWalker_, _EldestDurk_, _Witty Nickname_, _xTeddyBear312_, , _gypsykl79_, and _Neva-the-Nereid_ who added this story to their alerts list.  
But the **biggest** of all special thanks goes to those of you that **reviewed** on the last chapter. So ... **thank you!  
**Gaby de Brabant: Thank you so much for your review, dear! I'm so glad that you liked the last two chapters and I hope that you liked this one as well! The last chapter was quiet, this one was too, sort of. But there was some development between Emerson and Daryl that I'm quite happy with. Wish I could have told my grandmother I had important things to do, honestly, but I did get to write which is good. :D  
And Argentina? Wow! I've gone international! I love it!  
ResidentGoth: You're welcome! I honestly love snow, but besides that freak storm at the beginning of the story there's not going to be much of it in this story, because that's ridiculous. I'm glad that you liked the last chapter and I hope that there was enough interaction for you between Daryl and Emerson in this chapter. (There's definitely more coming too! I'm excited so you should be too!)  
Lady of Denial: Thank you for your review! I'm so glad that you liked the last chapter and I hope that you liked this one as well! (And I did have fun at my grandma's so that was great!)  
isopt: Hello darling! I hope that you enjoyed this chapter! And I'm so glad that you like the story enough to review! That's really nice! I'm kind of like that too, and feel so bad about it now because I live off of reviews! So should definitely start reviewing. So really ... thank you for reviewing! And don't worry about the english, you're fine. I understand you just fine!  
DancingUnderMoonlight18: I'm in love with the fact that you're in love with this story! I'm so glad! Thank you for your review my dear and I hope that you enjoyed this chapter too! I hope that taking time out of the SAT prep didn't cost you. (Good luck with that by the way) And yeah, I like how protective Daryl is too ... he's kind of like that with the entire group... I just gave him someone to really care about.  
I was disappointed that Emerson wasn't in tonight's episode (I really might start a petition and send it to AMC) but the episode was so good, amazing even so I can't complain too much.  
JDMlvr1: I'm glad you liked the last chapter and I hope that you liked this one just as much! Thank you so much for your review. Unfortunately I did not find any locations :(  
But as I said at the top I did find out that my cousin hugged Norman Reedus at DragonCon last year. So yeah, I have one degree of separation to him which is pretty cool.  
Nixie Sin: I'm sorry that I ended it there, darling. :( I hope that I didn't make you wait too long for the new chapter! I'm so glad that you like the story so far and I hope that you liked this chapter as well! Thank you so much for your review!  
gabby871: I really love when I get reviews from people who have never reviewed before! So thank you for that! I'm so glad that you love this story so far and I hope that you liked this chapter as well! And one of your favorite walking dead fanfics? That's some tough praise to live up to and I hope I do it justice!  
MagicalElf73: Thank you so much for your review! You'll soon realize I'm a fan of concerned Daryl just as much as protective Daryl. And my favorite part about his character is that he doesn't really know how to show that he's concerned so he also becomes slightly adorable Daryl. (And I've just babbled on too long about the man...) I'm glad you like the story so far and without giving too much away about Matt and his parent's fates ... yes. Soon. I've started writing it.  
biancastefani: You're welcome! And you made them late just so that you could read the last chapter! I'm in awe of your appreciation for this story. Thank you so much! I'm so glad that you love the story (because I do too. And I would be heartbroken if I were the only one). And I did have a nice weekend, I hope you did too! Thank you so much for your review and I hope you liked this chapter!  
And that's all I've got for now. Check back soon for more!  
Hugs and kisses,  
Chloe Jane.


	16. Chapter Fifteen

Disclaimer: I do not own the Walking Dead, although I'm completely obsessed with it and wished I did. Emerson, however, I do own.

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Check out my tumblr: MissChloeJane.  
I post spoilers. :D

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For those of you that do follow me on tumblr. Tonight (around 7pm eastern time) I will be online  
doing a question and answer thing with my inbox.  
So if you have any questions for me (anon or not) pop on over there and put it in my ask box.  
Provided that the answer won't give too much away I'll answer it.  
For those of you that are in a different time zone. Don't let that stop you. Ask your questions now and I'll answer them  
tonight when I get back from work.  
**I'm really excited about this. So I hope you guys have questions!  
**

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Chapter Fifteen:

"There were Walkers in the woods," Daryl whispered to Rick after dinner. His eyes shifted over to the wide doorframe that opened up to the living room. Emerson was sitting on the battered couch sandwiched between Matt and Carl as she quietly read to them from a Harry Potter book she'd found in their bedroom that evening. He hadn't told Emerson, but part of the point of him going hunting was to scout out the woods and see if the group was in any immediate danger. She would kill him if she knew that he had taken Matt on a mission to scout out Walkers, it wouldn't matter that he really believed that the kid needed to learn to hunt or that he came back safe. All that Emerson would care about was that Daryl had taken her little brother out to search for Walkers. "Not a lot an' far away from the house, but headin' in this direction. I got two of them, but there might be more."

Rick nodded his gaze going to the living room too where most of the group was seated, just enjoying the fact that they had room to stretch out, enjoying the fact that they weren't living out of their cars. "We'll stay for two more nights," Rick decided, turning to look at Daryl again, "You said there weren't many Walkers?" Daryl nodded. "We'll leave at sun up the day after tomorrow then," Rick decided. "I'll go tell the others."

Daryl nodded and got up from the kitchen table as well. He walked into the living room and sat down on the couch next to Matt. Emerson smiled at him over the top of her brother's head as she kept reading, "At three-thirty that afternoon, Harry, Ron, and the other Gryffindors hurried down the front steps onto the grounds for their first flying lesson. It was a clear, breezy day, and the grass rippled under their feet as," she stopped reading when she looked up and saw Rick standing in front of the fireplace, he looked as though he was about to make an announcement. "You know," she said turning to the two boys. "I think this is a good place to stop for now. Matt why don't you go upstairs, I'm pretty sure I saw a Battleship game in the hall closet. Maybe you and Carl could go play that?"

"But you'll read more tomorrow?" Carl asked, trying and failing to hide the interest in his voice. He was supposed to be the older one, he wasn't supposed to beg someone to read to him. He couldn't help it though, his mother had read to him every night before the Walkers started to attack, now she said that she didn't have time to read to him. If Emerson didn't mind reading to him and her brother he was going to milk that for all it was worth.

"It's a date," Emerson said, laughing slightly at the grossed out look on Carl's face. "Same place tomorrow morning?" The boys nodded and she smiled softly as she leaned forward and pressed a kiss to the top of Matt's head, she turned to kiss Carl too, but the boy quickly ducked away, laughing while he did it. "One of these days, Carl Grimes," Emerson warned jokingly before she nudged Matt off the couch, "Go play battleship, Matt. I'll be up soon for bed."

Matt nodded and climbed off the couch. Daryl moved closer to Emerson under the pretense of making room for anyone else who might want to sit on the couch. "An' ya thought yer bad for the kid," he said with a chuckle as he nodded toward the book. "That's the firs' time I've seen Carl act like a kid his age in a while." Emerson shrugged her shoulders in a non-committal way and hoped that Daryl wouldn't notice the blush rising on her cheeks at the compliment. It meant a lot to her that he thought she was doing a good job, especially since most days she felt as though she had no idea what she was doing, let alone if she was doing a good job. But Daryl thought she was. And that was enough.

"Listen up everyone," Rick said, his voice all business as he commanded the room's attention. "I know that this house is the most comfortable we've been since the farm. And I know that no one wants to leave just yet. But Daryl says that there were Walkers in the woods. Not many," he added quickly, trying to stop the group from panicking, "but enough and they were headed in the direction of the house. He killed them and our lookouts haven't spotted any that we need to worry about, not since last night," he shot Beth and Emerson a look that clearly said he was still mad at them. "But we've decided that it's getting close to time for us to pack up and keep moving. We're leaving the day after tomorrow at sun up and heading toward that college Emerson told us about. Which means tomorrow we're going to need to start packing up we'll have groups. One group will pack, the other will scavenge the house for any supplies we could need. We'll talk about that during breakfast. For now I suggest that everyone goes to bed early, we're going to have a long, busy day tomorrow."

Emerson turned to look at Daryl, her eyes wide and worried. Daryl knew she wasn't worried about leaving, or even about driving through her hometown, she was thinking about the Walkers in the woods. He reached out and patted her knee with an uncomfortable silence. He only spoke once he had stopped touching her and when he did it was a gruff assurance that everything was okay. That didn't calm Emerson down though, she shook her head, continuing to look at Daryl with eyes so wide that it was hard for him not to notice the flecks of gold in her green eyes. He shook himself out of that thought, she was worried and scared, now was not the time to be thinking about her eyes. Dixon's didn't notice things like that anyway. "There were Walkers in the woods?" Emerson asked.

"There are Walkers everywhere these days, Honey," Daryl said, shaking his head. Neither of them noticed the endearment slip out of him, and if they did they didn't mention it. "It's not really a shock that there was some in the woods."

"But Matt was in the woods," she said softly. "And so were you."

It was in that moment that Daryl really understood that Emerson cared about him and worried about him just as much as she did for Matt. She wasn't just worried that the Walkers had been near her little brother, but that they had been near him as well. He was touched by her worry, but he didn't know how to handle it, didn't want her to worry about him. She was his responsibility. He was supposed to worry about her, not the other way around. "Don' worry none about it," he said, shaking his head. "I took care of 'em."

"You could have been hurt though," Emerson pointed out softly as she stood up from the couch. "And you didn't even tell me. Is that what caused you to take so long to get back. Did Walkers have something to do that?" Daryl sighed and nodded, he didn't say anything, he knew that she would just assume that it was an excuse. "And you told me not to worry when you got back," Emerson muttered, shaking her head. "You lied to me, Daryl."

"There was nothin' ya needed to worry about," Daryl pointed out.

"You still lied," Emerson said. "I didn't think you'd do that." And then before Daryl could say anything to excuse himself or apologize Emerson shook her head in his direction and left the living room to go get ready for bed.

Daryl waited an hour downstairs before he finally went up the stairs and to the room he was sharing with Emerson and Matt. Emerson was angry at him and he figured that it would be best if she was sleeping when he got upstairs. He sighed when he got to the room and noticed that Matt hadn't slept in the middle that night. He was on the edge closest to the window and his sister was sleeping in the middle of the bed. There was a large amount of space next to Emerson's body that must have been meant for Daryl, but he was sure that she didn't really want him there. He quietly walked over to the bed and picked up a pillow. He moved to the end of the bed to grab the extra blanket from under Lou when Emerson spoke. She didn't roll over, she didn't look at him, she didn't even open her eyes. "If you think that I'm going to let you sleep on the floor you're mistaken," she warned. "I left you a spot for a reason, use it."

Daryl wasn't going to argue with that. He nodded and put the pillow back before sliding in under the blankets. He lay on his back for a moment, just listening to Lou, Matt, and Emerson breathe before he finally spoke. "I'm sorry for lyin' to ya," he said softly, trying not to wake Matt up. "It won' happen again."

"Good," Emerson said with a nod, that's all she had wanted to hear.

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Rick had been right, the next day was a busy one. Emerson had been put on unpacking duty for the first part of the day, they had decided that their supplies weren't packed in an organized fashion so they took everything out of all of the cars and then sorted them so that each car would have the same amount of food, weapons, and gas just incase someone got separated from the group while driving. Then they packed everything back into the cars in a more organized fashion while those that had been collecting supplies in the house brought more out for them to sort, separate, and pack. It was hard work considering that the sun was bright and hot and the cool weather from a few days ago seemed to have completely disappeared. Emerson was pretty sure that there were only three people in the group that had gotten out lucky. Carl and Matt who were currently playing fetch with Lou in front of the house and Daryl who was up on the roof watching out for Walkers. Emerson had made fun of him that morning for taking the shift, she had joked that he was trying to take the easiest job, but she had to admit that she felt safer with him keeping watch with his crossbow than she would have if anyone else had been up there. Several times she had looked up in the midst of packing to see him looking directly at her. She would wave and then smile as Daryl quickly looked away from her, not acknowledging the fact that he had been watching her in the first place.

"More dog food for Miss Emerson," Glenn said with a smile as he carried a heavy case of dog food to the SUV. Whoever had lived in the house had apparently had a lot of dogs before they were infected because they had more dog food than Emerson had had at the cabin. She didn't like wondering what had happened to the dogs after their owners had become Walkers, but she had an idea and it wasn't a pretty picture. She smiled at Glenn and thanked him as she loaded the case in the trunk of the SUV. "Where did Lou come from?" Glenn asked, watching as the dog in question went bounding after the stick one of the boys had just thrown for him. "Matt said that he wasn't yours in the beginning."

"No he wasn't," Emerson said, shaking her head. She supposed that she could explain to Glenn where Lou had come from. She wouldn't have to share all the details, all she'd have to say was that she had once been with a group and when she decided it was time for her and Matt to leave the dog had come with her. But then Glenn might ask her why she decided to leave the group and Emerson didn't really have an answer for that. She could lie, she supposed, say that it was just time to go or that Walkers attacked. But she didn't really want to get into it, at least not today. It was a nice, beautiful day and she didn't really want to ruin it with bad memories. "But he is now," she settled for, her tone telling Glenn that the conversation was finished.

He nodded, getting that she didn't want to talk about it. "So lunch?" he asked, nodding back toward the house where everyone was sitting on the front porch eating deer meat sandwiches on stale bread. "I hear it's the chef's special this afternoon," he joked gaining a laugh from the redhead next to him.

"Has anyone brought a sandwich up to Daryl?" she asked softly.

Glenn shook his head, "Figured you'd do it." Emerson glanced sharply at Glenn, wondering why they figured that she would be the one to bring lunch up to Daryl. Glenn shrugged and shoved his hands in the back pockets of his pants. It was clear to everyone that there was something going on between Emerson and Daryl. They had definitely seen a change in the Daryl with Emerson and the one without her. Glenn had seen firsthand how much Daryl cared for her the first night when she and Beth had met that Walker by the car. Emerson had been fine, taken care of the Walker like it was second nature, but Daryl didn't seem to care when he got out to her, all he cared about was how much of a risk Emerson had taken. But it was also clear to everyone that neither Daryl or Emerson were completely comfortable with what was going on between them. Either they didn't even realize it which would have been sad, or they were fighting it with everything they had which was even worse. So instead of pointing out that the two were practically dating without the perks Glenn opted for a different excuse, "Because you guys are friends and everything," he said with another shrug.

Emerson nodded, "We are," she said softly, the look on her face saying that she was surprised by that fact. She went to the kitchen and made three sandwiches, one for Daryl, one for her, and one for Matt. She delivered Matt's to him before she took the other two and a bottle of water up to the roof to Daryl. "Figured that you'd be hungry," she said softly as she sat down on the ground and took her sandwich off the plate. She handed Daryl the plate with his sandwich on it and the bottle of water. Since he was keeping watch he couldn't sit down, but he did move to stand closer to her. "Quiet day?" she asked him, wondering if there was anything the people on the ground needed to worry about.

"Ayuh," Daryl said with a nod. "Only one Walker from what I can see. But it's still in the woods. Don' look like it's plannin' on leavin' neither. I don' think they know we're here." They were silent for a moment, both thinking about the last time they had thought they were safe; the cabin for Emerson, and the farm for Daryl. He turned to study the girl sitting on the roof next to his feet. He had been worried about her since he found out that they were going to have to drive through her hometown to get to the college. She hadn't said much about it, actually she hadn't said anything about it since the first night, but he had a feeling that she was worried about it. She didn't really want to know what had become of her neighbors and friends, she was worried about the impact it would have on Matt, but there was nothing she could really do about it, no avoiding it. "Are ya okay?" he asked her, wondering if she would talk to him. "I know my limit ran out, but that's my question that ya owe me."

Emerson closed her eyes and leaned back against the railing of the widow's walk, she smiled up at the sun shining down on her face. "I'm fine," she said, her voice calm. "Why wouldn't I be? I have a sandwich and sunshine and you're here. What else do I need?" Daryl frowned, she knew what he meant she was just choosing to avoid his question and make a joke out of it. That's not what he wanted, he wanted a serious answer. She knew that he meant if she was okay with where the group was going the next morning. It was as though Emerson felt his frown because she opened one of her eyes and peeked at him. "What are you really asking, Daryl?" she asked him.

"Are ya okay with drivin' through yer hometown," he asked, making sure not to look at her when he asked. He knew the one thing that would keep her from answering his question honestly was if she felt as though he was paying too much attention to her. So instead he continued to scan the woods around the house for Walkers while he waited for her to answer his question.

"It's not like I really have a choice," Emerson said with a shrug. "We need to have a safe, secure place for Lori to have that baby. I wouldn't want to be sleeping in a car in the woods when the baby decides that it wants to start crying. Berry, from what I remember is kind of built like a fortress. As long as it isn't completely overrun with Walkers we have a fighting chance to take it over. The easiest, fastest, and most gas-saving way of getting there is to drive through Glenwood. It's going to be fine."

"That's not what I asked," Daryl pointed out. "I didn' ask why we are drivin' through Glenwood. I didn' ask why the college would be the best place for us. An' I didn' ask if it was gonna be fine. I asked if yer gonna be okay. Now answer that question."

Emerson glanced up at him, a blush rising to her cheeks. "Are you going to be there for me?" she asked him. Daryl nodded, he didn't say anything because he thought his answer was an obvious one. Driving through the town was going to be hard for Emerson, where else would he be than right beside her? Emerson nodded too, "Then I'm going to be just fine," she said, standing up so that she could lean against the railing and look down on the lawn. "I'm just worried about Matt," she said softly. "Worried about what this is going to do to him. I told him that when I went back to town everything was fine, he's going to know that I lied to him now. This is going to destroy him."

"The kid's stronger than ya give 'im credit for," Daryl said, shaking his head. "He's just as worried about ya as yer worried about 'im." Daryl glanced down at the yard where the boy in question was sharing part of his sandwich with the dog. "Drivin' through that town isn't goin' to break the kid as much as ya think it will. I bet yer overreactin' and he doesn't even bat an eye when drivin' through town."

"I'm overreacting am I?" Emerson asked with a smirk. "And why do you think I'm doing that?"

Daryl shrugged, "All women do," he said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. Emerson playfully growled at him and grabbed the water bottle from his hand, she splashed some of the water on him and giggled when he started to try to steal the bottle back from her. "What did I say?" he growled as he took the water bottle back from her and advanced on her until she was backed into a corner. "What did I say about the pillow when we firs' got here? Don't start nothin' ya can't finish." And then before Emerson could say anything he turned the water bottle upside down over her head and soaked her with the rest of the water. He chuckled at her when she glared up at him, water dripping from her wet hair and into her eyes. "Ya don' have no one to blame, but yerself," he said, no sympathy for her before he turned back to the woods to watch for Walkers.

"You just wait, Daryl Dixon," Emerson muttered to herself. "I'll get you back for this."

"I'd like to see ya try, Honey," Daryl chuckled as the girl walked back down the stairs to get back to work, her lunch break over. "I'd like to see ya try."

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Author's Note:  
Hello dears! Thank you for stopping by again and reading!  
I hope that you liked this last chapter. I did ... even though it was a quiet one.  
Big things are going to happen in the next chapter, I promise. **BIG THINGS**.  
I want tomorrow to come faster just so that I can post it for you. That's how excited I am.  
Well, like I said at the beginning of my author's note I want to thank you for reading this chapter.  
But special thanks goes to: _Aris Moon_, _CarlaWalker_, _FallenSlayer17_, _cahanse _and _dallas laczny_ for adding this story to their favorites list. And to: _Aris Moon_, _LittleOne87_, M_alovyn_, _cahanse_, _dallas laczny_, _shaybay55 _and _phoebecaulfield92 _who added this story to their alerts list.  
But the **biggest** of all special thanks goes to those of you that **reviewed** on the last chapter (Reviews tend to make me write ... I love them.)  
Gaby de Brabant: You have no idea how much I like hearing that people like my version of a certain character. (Especially Daryl because on the show, even if he does have different layers mostly he's gruff so I always feel like I'm writing him wrong.) And I really adore the response Em has gotten. It's hard to make people like an OC who's not on the show, so I'm so glad that you like her!  
And I'm so sorry that you haven't seen this week's episode yet, because it's amazing! But I promise I'll try not to give anything way! Thank you so much for your review and as always, I hope that you liked this chapter too!  
ResidentGoth: I hope you were grinning this morning when you checked your email and found another notification! And you're right, I am teasing you. But if it makes you feel any better I'm teasing me too. I want them together as much as everyone else does. But it's going to take time. (If it makes you feel any better ... there is major interaction in the next chapter - I'm so excited for it.)  
And Rick crying was the worst! When he looked at Carl and just ... "Oh No!" I'm tearing up thinking about it. This is not okay. All I can do is tell myself that after this episode, I will be ready for anything they throw at me next week. :D  
xzcarlyzx: Hello again! I'm so glad that you liked the last chapter enough to review again! Thank you for that! And I will consider it a major achievement if by the end of this story I actually make you "squee" out loud! (You'll have to let me know if that happens.) And I'm glad that the more original stories are more interesting. I've never tried to follow a season story line, but I feel like it would just feel awkward if the author puts an OC in there. Because the reader's know what's going to happen and the OC is just there ... I don't know how to explain it, but it would feel weird to me.  
Anyway, done babbling. Once again, thank you for your review and I hope you enjoyed this chapter too.  
DancingUnderMoonlight18: It's so good that I wasn't the only one screaming and yelling at the tv! (Especially with T-Dog. I was so proud of him but angry at the writers in the same time ... grrr. Getting angry just thinking about it.) I'm so glad that you liked the last chapter (especially the ending ... the way I see it, Daryl's definitely a big softie, he just tries to hide it (and he fails around Emerson)). And I know I keep saying it, but I'm seriously going to petition AMC for Emerson and Matt (and probably Lou). Would you sign the petition? Haha. Thanks for your review and I hope that you liked this chapter too!  
Ravennn: Hello! Thank you so much for your review! I'm so glad that you liked the last chapter and I hope that you liked this chapter too! And I am so glad that you're enjoying the slow building relationship between the two. I've read some Daryl fics where he and the girl are having sex like two chapters in and that's plausible, especially during stressful times, but if you want an actual relationship between the two it's not going to work that way. So I'm trying to keep it from going too slow, but I don't want it to go too fast either.  
And yeah, I agree with you about TDog and Lori. At least their deaths meant something, like it wasn't just pointless. And don't worry about any bad spelling. I can understand you. Where are you from?  
shaybay55: New reviewer! I love my new reviewers just as much as I love my regular ones! Welcome! Thank you so much for your review and I'm glad that you like this story! I hope that you liked this chapter as much as the previous ones!  
Nixie Sin: Thank you for your review, dear! I'm glad that the last chapter was worth the wait and I hope that you enjoyed this one too! (Even though you did have to wait a bit for it. :p) I hope to hear from you soon!  
Anyway, that's all I've got for now!  
For those of you that follow me on tumblr! I hope I see you on there tonight. I'm kind of excited!  
And until tomorrow, happy reading!  
Hugs and kisses,  
Chloe Jane.


	17. Chapter Sixteen

Disclaimer: I do not own the Walking Dead, although I'm completely obsessed with it and wished I did. Emerson, however, I do own.

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Check out my tumblr: MissChloeJane.  
I post spoilers. :D

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So guys, last night I finished typing up chapter ... nineteen.  
And it's **amazing** if I do say so myself.  
I think it's even better than this one (and I'm pretty proud of this one)  
So be very **excited**.  
It's going to be GREAT!  
And it should come to you on **Saturday**!

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Chapter Sixteen:

That night after dinner Emerson volunteered to take a night shift on the roof watching for Walkers with Rick. Daryl didn't seem to like the idea, he volunteered to take Emerson's spot and when she refused he volunteered to take Rick's job. But the leader of the group wouldn't budge, Daryl had been on watch all day, he needed to rest because they'd be driving the next day. Daryl spent the evening grumbling as Emerson read a little bit more of the Harry Potter book to the boys before getting ready to go up on the roof. "I don't like it," Daryl muttered from the doorway as Emerson slipped into one of her father's sweatshirts. "Tomorrow's gonna be hard enough for ya without yer stayin' up all night."

"Maybe I need to stay up all night," Emerson said as she brushed passed Daryl, her hand resting on his hip for a moment. "Maybe being tired will be a good thing. Maybe I'll be able to sleep through Glenwood if I stay up all night. I mean, hell, maybe we won't even make it to Glenwood. We don't know what the roads are going to be like." She started to walk down the hallway to the stairs that led to the roof when Daryl reached out, his hand encircling Emerson's small wrist. Emerson sighed and turned to look at the man, her green eyes silently pleading with him. "Let me go, Dare," she requested softly.

Daryl startled at the nickname that slipped between Emerson's lips without her notice. No one had ever thought to give him a nick name before. It surprised him. He shook his head and covered his surprise with a gruff tone, "I still don' like it," he growled. "But it don' look like I can stop ya neither."

"You can't," Emerson said softly, she reached out and gently cupped Daryl's cheek for a moment. "But it's sweet that you've tried," she added, smiling when Daryl looked away from her, clearly uncomfortable with the contact. She shook her head, "We're going to have to work on that," she said softly, leaving Daryl in the hallway before he could ask her what she thought they needed to work on.

It was a quiet night, both on the Walker front and with Rick. They didn't spot any Walkers which made Emerson feel just as nervous as she would have been if they had seen some. She knew that it was unrealistic, that the Walkers had no way to communicate or to come up with a game plan of attack; but on a quiet night like this, when her mind was allowed to wander she couldn't help but wonder what the Walkers were up to. Rick wasn't any help either, he didn't say much throughout the night watch besides the occasional question to make sure that Emerson hadn't fallen asleep. Mostly Emerson spent the night looking between the forest and the starry sky above them.

She couldn't help but wonder about what had happened to her world. Five years ago she had been a college junior, her biggest worry had been what boy she was going to go out with that weekend and whether or not she would get an A on her last test. Two years ago she had been in Afghanistan - her worries had been bigger there, but not this big. She had worried about getting wounded and what her mother would think if she learned that Emerson had taken up smoking to deal with the stress. Almost exactly a year ago Emerson had been arriving home after Afghanistan - her biggest worry then had been how annoying her younger brother would be when she visited her parents for a week. Zombies had been things in scary movies and something kids dressed up as at Halloween. They had never been an actual concern, never even seemed plausible.

But now, here she was, standing under the most beautiful sky she had ever seen. With most places not having electricity anymore there was no light pollution to ruin the stars. There was a large, full moon and what seemed like thousands, if not millions of stars. And instead of being able to appreciate any of this all Emerson could do was worry. She worried about Matt, what kind of man he would turn out to be after growing up in a world like this. She worried that she might never be able to see him grow up - that she would get injured and die before she could see her brother grow into a man. She worried that he would never get the chance to be able to grow up and get older. She worried about the fact that they were all infected and would later turn into one of those creatures. She worried that one day Matt might have to kill her. She worried about Daryl; that something would happen to him; that one day she would have to kill him. Mostly she worried that there was no escape, that this would be man's extinction event like the comet had been for the dinosaurs.

She didn't like the fact that all of these worries made her feel helpless. There was nothing she could do. There was nowhere that she could go. There was no way to be truly safe. Daryl had told her that the CDC had blown up with its last doctor. Did that mean that there wasn't anyone in the world that was trying to figure out this infection and how to protect yourself against it? Was there any protection against it? Was there a way to be immune? Had the entire world been infected or only North America? What had happened to the president? The government? The military? Didn't they have some sort of disaster plan for something like this? Were they just going to sit back and let the country become overrun by Walkers? Or were they gone too? Just like her parents? Her neighbors? Her friends? She didn't like feeling as though she had no control over her own situation. It wasn't a feeling she had ever become used to and she definitely didn't want to start now.

By an hour before dawn Emerson was quietly crying over all the worries she had now that she had never had before. She couldn't believe the worries she had. If someone had told her a year ago that she would be worried about these things - about Matt starving or one of them getting attacked by a zombie - she would have assumed that they needed medication because they were crazy. Her tears grew steadily worse, but she hadn't realized that she was sobbing until Rick's hand landed on her shoulder and he gently turned her around to face him. "Go back in the house," Rick commanded, his eyes soft - a direct contradiction to the stern tone of his voice. "Get some sleep."

Emerson shook her head and angrily wiped away at the tears sliding down her cheeks. "I can't leave you up here alone," she said. "I - I volunteered to take the night shift. I'm not going to leave you alone now." She paused for a moment, trying to get her breathing under control. "I can stop," she said, hoping that she sounded more sure of herself than she felt. "I'm sorry for doing this. But I'm going to get it under control. I'm not going to leave you alone."

"Yes you are," Rick said, his voice even more stern than before. "You did the night shift, it's morning now. Go get a little sleep." Emerson opened her mouth to argue, but she couldn't get anything out past the tears sliding down her cheeks and the sobs that were threatening to break lose. It wouldn't have made a difference because Rick simply shushed her and walked her to the stairs, giving her absolutely no room to argue. Emerson sighed, she still didn't agree with Rick's decision, but she was no longer going to fight it either.

She wanted to cry with relief when she walked into the bedroom. She could just barely make out the shapes of Daryl, Matt, and Lou sleeping on the bed in the early morning light. There was something very reassuring about that, something that felt safe about knowing that the three of them were there, waiting for her. She sighed when she realized that this room, the three of them and her - it felt like home. She quickly took off her shoes and pulled off her pants on the way to the bed. The next thing to come off was her father's sweatshirt. She didn't bother to change into her pajamas, she simply patted Lou on the head before she slipped under the covers and moved closer to Daryl so that she could snuggle into his warm back.

"Wha -?" Daryl growled, rolling over in the bed so that he could see the intruder. Emerson quietly shushed him and started to move away from him, she didn't want to intrude on his personal space anymore than she had already done over the last few days. But Daryl must have noticed that she had been crying, that she was upset, because in a moment of rare behavior Daryl's arm shot out and he wrapped it around Emerson's waist before he pulled her closer to him. "What's wrong, Em?" he asked her in a hushed tone, his blue eyes soft and concerned. Emerson shook her head and told him that nothing was wrong. "Bull," Daryl growled. "Ya ain't the type to cry over nothin'. Now what's wrong?"

"Just," Emerson started, but she didn't know how to voice what was wrong with her. It wasn't new information, it was all things that Daryl was aware of and he would probably think that she was stupid about worrying about it. There was nothing she could do, it was out of her control. "Just," she repeated, making a split second decision though she had no idea if Daryl would even comply with her request, "just hold me please?"

For a second she thought that he was going to say no. That he was going to get angry at her for even asking. But instead Daryl sighed and nodded. "Come 'ere," he said softly, pulling Emerson even closer to him so that her head was buried in his chest and his arms were wrapped tightly around her. And then, just because it had been so long since Emerson had been held by someone that honestly cared about her the flood gates opened up and she began to sob in ernest against Daryl's chest. "It's okay," Daryl whispered, running one of his hands up and down her spine in a soothing motion, "It's fine." But Emerson shook her head, it wasn't fine. It might never be fine again. But this was the first time that she had ever allowed herself to let go, she didn't need to be strong right now, there was no one to be strong for. And she didn't know what to do with herself. To Daryl's credit, if he was uncomfortable with their position he didn't let her know. He held her until her sobs had quieted, "There," he said matter-of-factly once her tears were done. "That's all ya needed. Feel better now?" Emerson nodded, not trusting her voice to say anything. "Good," Daryl nodded. "Ya should get some sleep now, go on. We got maybe an hour before we leave. Try an' get some sleep."

Emerson wanted to shake her head, she wanted to apologize for her tears and go back to the roof where she could pretend that she hadn't spent the last fifteen minutes crying into Daryl's shirt. But the idea of sleep sounded so good it was hard not to snuggle closer to Daryl's warm body and close her eyes. "Wake me up when it's time to go," Emerson whispered, as if being left behind by the group was a legitimate concern for her.

"We ain't goin' nowhere without ya," Daryl soothed, lifting his hand off her back so that he could run his fingers through her hair. "Don' worry none about that." But Emerson was already asleep by this point. Daryl smiled down at her, this is what he had been expecting up on the roof that day when he asked her how she felt about driving through her hometown. He wasn't sure what had set her off now, but he had been expecting these tears for a while. There was only so much a person could take before they broke. Emerson Phillips had finally reached her breaking point.

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"Yer doin' okay?" Daryl asked three hours later as they followed the caravan of cars down an abandoned back road. Emerson hadn't said much since they woke up and everyone climbed in the car to start driving. They hadn't made it far, the road had been abandoned but there were more than a few broken down cars that they had had to move out of the way. Emerson had been sitting in the front seat of the car, staring out the window for the last hour and a half, but Daryl had the feeling that she wasn't actually seeing what she was looking at. They had just passed the first sign for Glenwood, the town was seventy-two miles away. He worried that the realization that they were getting closer to her hometown would cause Emerson to freak out, but she hadn't even reacted to the sign. She turned to look at him, her eyes blank as if she had shut down, as if she didn't feel any emotions. "Yer okay, ain't ya?" Daryl asked again, his tone more worried than before. He wasn't used to this Emerson. He could handle the one that had left the cabin, the one that had been cussing and yelling. He could even handle the crying Emerson from that morning. But he wasn't sure if he could handle this Emerson - the one that seemed like she was in shock, that nothing mattered to her. "Answer me, Em," Daryl commanded.

"I'm fine," Emerson said, her voice faint as she nodded and turned back to the window. "Why wouldn't I be?"

Daryl was about to respond when Matt and Lou interrupted them. Lou stood up in the seat and moved closer to the window so that he could growl. "Walker!" Matt squealed, unnecessarily - Daryl had gotten quite used to what Lou's growls meant. "Daryl, Em! There's a Walker in that field over there. Will it be able to get to us?" Emerson looked at the field in question, wondering if there was more than one Walker stumbling its way through the field, but she could only see one. It didn't appear to even notice the cars let alone be interested in them. It probably wouldn't be a concern to the group, but she couldn't help but shiver, it was the first Walker they had seen on the road. "Are we going to have to kill it?" Matt asked, his voice almost excited.

"Nah," Daryl said, shaking his head. "It's too far away to hurt us. Ain't worth the time or effort to go after 'im. We best leave him alone." Matt looked disappointed at the news. Daryl turned back to Emerson, she was staring at the Walker with shrewd eyes, as if by staring at it she would be able to figure out where it had come from and where it was going. As if she would be able to know if they should be concerned about it just by staring at it. Daryl didn't like how quiet she was, he didn't like that nothing seemed to have an effect on her. "I got shot once," he blurted out, not realizing that he had said anything until Emerson turned her head to look at him, her green eyes wide and concerned. Daryl nodded, now that he had her attention he was going to keep talking. "Grazed the side of my head, at the farm. The woman, Andrea, thought I was a damn Walker an' shot me. Course this was after I had shot myself with my own arrow, practically fallen off a cliff and fought some Walkers all on my own."

"Cool!" Matt said, his tone one of awe. "You've never told that story. You took care of the Walkers all on your own Daryl? How'd you do it? Were you scared? Will you teach me?" Daryl noticed that Emerson flinched at Matt's last question. He turned to look at her, eyebrows raised, silently wondering what answer he should give the kid to his questions. Emerson looked at him for a moment before she shrugged and gave him the smallest of nods. Daryl nodded back.

"I expect ya best know how to take down a Walker before ya get yerself in trouble," he answered. He couldn't help the smile that spread across his face at Matt's cheer of happiness. The smile only got wider when he turned to look at Emerson and realized that she was smiling too. He took one of his hands off the wheel for a moment so that he could grab her hand and give it a gentle squeeze. "I can't be savin' yer ass all the time," he joked softly, "it'd be best if Matt knew how to save yer life too."

Emerson scoffed and squeezed his hand back, "I saved your life," she said before she turned back to the window and didn't say anything else.

"Ayuh," Daryl said with a nod as he took his hand back and turned back to the road. "Ya did." When he cast a sideways glance at Emerson a moment later he could just make out the beginning of a grin spreading across her lips.

"Are you guys best friends?" Matt asked from the backseat. When they had left the farm house Emerson had taken the Harry Potter book with them. She had given it to Matt in the car and told him that she wanted him to practice his reading, but her younger brother had decided that the book wasn't as entertaining as looking out the window, or observing his older sister's relationship with Daryl. "Because Emmy used to tell me that I was her best friend and I told her that we couldn't be best friends because she's my older sister. But she needs a best friend, she doesn't have any." He must have caught onto his sister's flinch as she thought about her best friends, the ones that hadn't made it because he corrected himself. "Well she did in high school, and college, and maybe even in the army. But they're all in different parts of the country now. She needs a best friend that's here with her."

"I don' know," Daryl said with a shrug. "Can we be best friends?" For a moment Emerson thought that he was asking her, but when she turned to glance at him she saw that he was looking at Matt in the rearview mirror. "I thought that I was yer best friend, Matt," Daryl said, "since we're both men an' we both have to take care of yer sister."

"Carl is my best friend," Matt said, his tone matter-of-fact. "You two can be best friends, even though normally boys and girls can't be best friends, you know," he paused and glanced at Emerson for a moment, he put his hand in front of his mouth and whispered loudly to Daryl, "because of the cooties." Daryl grinned at Emerson and chuckled when he saw her lips twitch into an even bigger smile than when they had been joking about who had saved who. "But now with the Walkers around I don't think cooties matter much anymore," Matt said, his tone serious as if cooties were a very important matter that the adults didn't care enough about. He turned to look at Emerson. "I still love you, Emmy," he said, worried that he had hurt her feelings with all his cootie talk.

"Even though I have cooties?" Emerson asked with a smile. "I wouldn't want to infect you or anything." Daryl chuckled at the two siblings, he had wanted to distract Emerson with his story about getting shot but that hadn't worked out as well as this. It was good to see her smile and joke with Matt. The boy's life was so serious now, it was nice to know that the two could still have fun even as they were driving toward their old hometown, a place that was going to be very hard for them to see. Emerson turned to look at Daryl and bit her lip, Daryl forced himself not to growl at the sight, but he could feel his hands tightening around the steering wheel, Emerson had to know the effect she had on him when she did that, it wasn't like he was able to hide his reactions very well. She smiled softly at him, "I guess we're best friends now, Dixon."

"Guess so," Daryl said with a nod.

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Author's Note:  
So it wasn't the romantic interaction (a kiss) that many of you were hoping for.  
But let's be honest, as far as Daryl goes it's a pretty big deal! What he did in this chapter.  
So I'm proud of him and I'm proud of my chapter!  
I hope you guys liked it as much as I do.  
Thank you so much for stopping by to read this chapter! And I hope you come back tomorrow for the next one.  
But special thanks go to: _0netflixme0_, _AudreyStar_, _Daryldixonsexy_, _GatorGirl99_, _SilverAdvenger12_, _StanziWood_ and _p__hoebecaulfield99 _who added this story to their alerts list.  
But the **biggest** of all special thanks goes to those who **reviewed** after the last chapter! So thank you!  
DancingUnderMoonlight18: I want to say I was surprised when they killed off T-Dog, but honestly, according to the zombie/horror movie stereotype he's been living on borrowed time. What surprised me is that they killed them both in the same episode. That was too much. I couldn't handle it. I'm so glad that you liked the last chapter and I hope that you liked this one too (that I didn't over build the **big** things that happened in this chapter.)  
shaybay55: Thank you so much for reviewing again dear! And no, it's not wrong that you want them to be together already. I do too! (Hence why I'm pretty excited about a future chapter that I may or may not have mentioned at the top of the page...) But in all seriousness, I'm glad that you like the pace I'm taking with them and I hope that you liked this chapter too!  
Mrs. Kyle Hobbes: You to to Berry? Lucky! I've looked at pictures of it online and I love it, I think it's gorgeous. And yeah, wikipedia made it sound pretty great for a zombie apocalypse. I just made it a bit smaller and as you'll read in a future chapter made it completely surrounded with stone walls. Even better for keeping out zombies. If you want send me a brief description of you ... I'll make you a Walker. But anyway, thank you for your review and I hope you like that story!  
ResidentGoth: I love that you go from talking about Carl and Matt and Carl's age differences between the comic and the show to: "But anyway, Emerson and Daryl are so cute." I'm glad that you liked the last chapter and I hope that you liked this one as well! And don't tell me that! I have to be ready for the next episode! I can't handle anymore episodes when I scream at the tv scream as I bawl like a baby. I can't handle them!  
JDMlvr1: Thank you for your review! I'm glad you liked the last chapter (specifically the reading ... a lot of people seemed to like that part) I just wanted to give the group a bit of normalcy, something they did before the Walkers that didn't necessarily have to change. And I hope that you liked this chapter as well!  
SilverAdvenger12: Thank you for your review! I'm so glad that you found my story and that you're enjoying it so far. I hope you liked this chapter too.  
0netflixme0: Thank you for your review! I'm really glad that you found my story and more so that you love it! If you just found it and you're already on chapter fifteen did you read all of the chapters back to back?  
Ravennn: Don't worry, they're definitely going to get together. I can't create Daryl's perfect girl and then not let them get together. That would just be mean. And I know Belgium. You guys have chocolate and you guys got invaded by Germany in WWI and I think WWII. But that's basically all I know.  
noelle4d: Thank you so much for your review! I'm glad that you like this story so far and I hope that you continue to like it. And you sure know how to spoil a writer ... all you need to do is compare their stories to a less well written one and we're putty. So thanks for that. :D  
Gaby de Brabant: Well I'm glad this story is becoming an addiction for you. If it makes you feel any better it's an addiction for me too (that's why there are daily updates. I can't stop writing!) And you cried during the episode too? It was so sad! Well I'm glad you liked the last chapter and I hope you liked this one too! I had fun with Emerson and Daryl in this one.  
Nixie Sin: I feel special if you haven't reviewed this much before! That makes me really happy actually! And you've learned the relationship between reviews and chapters. That's exactly how it works. At the beginning this story wasn't getting many reviews and if I hadn't loved it so much... I probably would have stopped writing it which would have sucked. Anyway, I hope you liked this chapter! Thank you for yet another review, dear!  
And that's all I've got for now. If you liked this chapter send me a **review**. I love them.  
Until tomorrow, happy reading!  
Hugs and kisses,  
Chloe Jane.


	18. Chapter Seventeen

Disclaimer: I do not own the Walking Dead, although I'm completely obsessed with it and wished I did. Emerson, however, I do own.

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Check out my tumblr: MissChloeJane.  
I post spoilers. :D

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Just as a heads up, I'm bored.  
So I'm running "open auditions" for Walker parts for upcoming chapters.  
So, if you want to be featured as a Walker in an upcoming chapter. Send me a brief description of yourself (either on tumblr or vis PM on this site)  
and tell me which character you want to "interact" with and how you'd like to die.  
And I might work it into the story.  
Yeah ... this is what happens when I get bored.

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Chapter Seventeen:

They didn't make it to Glenwood that day, Emerson didn't say anything, but Daryl could tell by the sigh of relief and the look on her face when he stopped the car that she was happy that she didn't have to deal with that that day. They stopped about thirty miles from the small town at a quiet rest stop about a mile off of the already quiet back road. Despite how difficult he knew the drive was for Emerson Daryl was glad that she had told them about it. He didn't want to get ahead of himself and say that he felt safe, but they had been driving all day and he had only spotted three Walkers, none of which seemed to notice the caravan of moving cars on the road. When they stopped the cars Daryl tried to stop Emerson, to talk to her to make sure that she was okay, but it was as if the redhead knew what he wanted and was purposefully ignoring him.

She climbed out of the SUV and immediately set about finding wood for a fire and figuring out what they should have for dinner that night. After dinner she read some Harry Potter to the two boys by the light of the fire. And then she was too busy putting Matt and Lou to bed to talk to him. She didn't stop moving until she was forced to when Rick decided that it was time for everyone to go to the cars to sleep. She didn't look at Daryl when he climbed into the driver's seat and moved his seat back so that he could lay down in it. She simply locked the doors, covered herself with her blanket and rolled over so that she was facing the window.

Daryl wanted to talk to her, he felt as though they needed to talk, but he had no idea what to say to the girl and it was clear that she didn't want to talk to him. He was about to fall asleep when he heard Emerson softly talking to herself. "What are ya gabbin' about?" Daryl asked, his tone angrier than he meant it to be. It wasn't that he was particularly angry at Emerson, but she had made it clear that she didn't want to talk to him or even interact with him. And then, just as he's about to fall asleep she started to talk to herself. It was stupid.

"I wasn't gabbing," Emerson said, rolling her eyes as she continued to face the window. "I was singing to myself. I've got a song stuck in my head."

"A song stuck in yer head?" Daryl asked, confused. Even before this whole mess with the Walkers Daryl had never been the type to get songs stuck in his head, he didn't listen to music enough for that to happen. And now, with all of this mess he had no idea how anyone could get a song stuck in their head; there was no radio to listen to - no songs to hear. "Well if yer gonna sing it, sing it louder so I can hear too," Daryl growled, slipping his arm under his head as a pillow.

Emerson sighed and for a second Daryl assumed that she wasn't going to do it. That she was going to tell him that he was an idiot. But a second later her soft voice filled the front seat as she sang. "A drop in the ocean, a change in the weather, I was praying that you and me might end up together." Daryl had never heard the song, but he assumed there was more to it than that - Emerson just stopped though, as if she was embarrassed. He turned his head to the side, to study the redhead and was surprised to see that she was studying him. "There's more to it than that," she whispered. "But I've forgotten it."

"Sounds like a love song," Daryl grumbled, he hadn't had time for love songs before all this shit happened and he definitely didn't have time for them now. "Singing it for anyone special?" he teased.

"My best friend of course," Emerson teased back, sticking her tongue out at him playfully. And just like that the redhead was back to normal. She didn't look moody, like the smallest thing would make her burst into tears. Her green eyes, which during the ride that day had looked shocked and dead were filled with the light and sparkle that Daryl was used to. The old Emerson was back, _his_ Emerson was back.

"There she is," Daryl said softly. Emerson's eyebrows shot up, she had no idea what he was talking about. "I'd thought I lost her," Daryl said with a nod. "The old Emerson. But here she is, good as new. Where ya been all day, girl?" Emerson laughed at him and shook her head as if she thought he was crazy. Daryl looked at her for a moment before he pulled his arm out from under his head and held his arms open to her, "Come 'ere," he said, nodding down at his chest.

"What?" Emerson asked, she looked confused and worried. As if maybe Daryl was sick. She stared at him as if she had no idea who he was and what he had done with her friend.

"Come 'ere," Daryl repeated, not explaining himself to her. Emerson stared at him for another few seconds before she complied with his request and moved over the center console and allowed him to wrap her up in his arms. "There ya are," Daryl said with an approving nod as he tucked her red head under his chin and used his blanket to cover both of them.

Emerson snuggled into his chest for a moment, enjoying his warmth. It wasn't until ten minutes later that it suddenly clicked with her that they were cuddling. She sat up on his lap and stared at him, just able to make out some of his facial features in the dark. Daryl grumbled something, he had almost been asleep, more comfortable than he had been all day when Emerson had suddenly shifted and forced him awake. Emerson stared down at him for a moment, "We're cuddling," she said. A statement not a question.

Daryl groaned. He shouldn't have asked her to come over and cuddle with him. She was going to have all sorts of questions now. And how was he supposed to explain to her that ever since they first time he had pulled her over on top of him he didn't seem to know how to sleep without her next to him. How was he supposed to tell her that he hadn't slept at all the night before because all he could do was worry about her. He sighed, "We are," he finally settled for when he realized that she was waiting for a response from him. He was hoping that she'd leave it at that, but it was Emerson, of course she wouldn't do that. "What?" he finally asked, sick of feeling her staring at him in the dark.

"It's been you," Emerson said slowly. "That first night in the car. The night on top of the car when we found the group. Yesterday morning in the bed. I've spent all this time thinking that I was invading your space, forcing you to cuddle with me when I was sleeping, but it's been you." Daryl grumbled something that Emerson couldn't understand, but a swift jab to his ribs with her fingers forced her to admit that it had been him. Daryl expected Emerson to move away from him then, he was preparing himself for a long night of worrying about her even if she was just sleeping one seat away. But Emerson smiled and laid back down on top of him, snuggling into his chest. "Daryl Dixon likes to cuddle," she said softly, "go figure."

"Don' ya go tellin' no one," Daryl grunted as he wrapped his arms back around her. "I won' take none too kindly to this information gettin' out."

"Of course not," Emerson said softly, with her eyes closed she was having trouble staying awake, even to make fun of the big, tough redneck with a penchant for cuddling. "But we are going to have to talk about this tomorrow." Daryl nodded, already sure of the fact that he would do everything in his power to ensure that they didn't have to talk about this the next day. "Good night, Dare," Emerson breathed softly, causing Daryl to tense when she turned her head to the side and pressed a soft, barely there kiss to his chest through his shirt.

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Emerson was warm and comfortable when she was awakened by a noise outside. She didn't want to wake up, unlike other mornings she was well aware that she was wrapped in Daryl's arms. And unlike other mornings she was well aware of why she was wrapped in his arms. She knew that it wasn't because she was forcing him to cuddle with her. It was because the man that didn't like to be touched during the day, the man who was uncomfortable showing emotion in front of people, he needed her. And that felt amazing, she had been worried that the slight feelings that she had been trying to stop herself from having had all been one sided. Daryl might not know how to show that he had feelings, that he cared about her. But he definitely felt them.

It was still dark out, she was beginning to wonder what had woke her up, it wasn't time for the group to start moving again and it seemed that whatever noise had woken her up had stopped. She was about to roll over and snuggle deeper into Daryl's chest when she heard the noise again. Something was going on outside the car, no one was talking, but there was some kind of scuffle. She quietly lifted her head off of Daryl's chest and smiled when Daryl grumbled in his sleep and tried to pull her closer to him. She looked out the front windshield, but she couldn't see any sign of what had woke her up. She moved out of Daryl's lap and moved over to the passenger seat. Glancing around the car to make sure that both of her boys were okay she quietly opened her door and climbed out of the car.

She could definitely hear the noise now. It sounded as though two people were quietly fighting with each other. But as she looked around at the cars surrounding her, no one was missing from them. She looked up at the SUV where T-Dog was supposed to be keeping guard, but she couldn't see him. She looked down at the ground and she felt fear start to build in the pit of her stomach when she saw the walkie-talkie laying on the ground. Suddenly it clicked, the abandoned watch station, the noises she had heard - there was a Walker somewhere near the cars and T-Dog was having trouble with it. For a moment she stood looking between the walkie-talkie and the car, wondering what she should move to first, the walkie-talkie to warn everyone, or her weapons to help T-dog. She made a split second decision, stooping to grab the walkie-talkie before she started to rush back to her car. "Rick!" she spoke into the walkie-talkie, not yelling, but not whispering, she needed to wake up him. "There's a Walker somewhere. T-Dog's missing! I'm gonna go find them."

She ran to the trunk and opened it, grabbing the first weapon she could reach, a shot gun with a suppressor attached to it. "I'm coming for you, T," she whispered as she moved toward the woods where she could hear the sounds from their scuffle. The walkie-talkie was still attached to her hip and she could hear voices coming from it. Each car had a walkie-talkie in it so everyone could stay connected. She could hear Carol wondering where she was. Rick had told her to stand down, that he would take car of it. But she wasn't going to listen. The only voice that made her pause for even a moment was Daryl's. _Emerson, we talked about this. Ya get yer ass back in the car. _She didn't listen though, simply paused for a moment. "Daryl," she spoke into the walkie-talkie, ignoring everyone else. "T needs help. You can yell at me later for this."

And then she turned the radio off and started running for the woods. The noise of the fight was getting louder. "T!" she shouted, not caring about being heard. "I'm coming for you. When I get there, duck. I'm shooting blind here!" She found them a moment later, the Walker - a woman had T-Dog pinned to the ground and she was snapping at his neck. He had his arms extended in front of him, holding her back with everything that he had in him. She quickly loaded the ammo into the gun and racked it. The noise attracted the attention of the Walker, the woman glanced up at her and growled as started to stand up, she must have decided that Emerson was an easier target than the mad she had been fighting on the ground. "That's right," Emerson whispered, waiting for the Walker to get closer to her before she shot nine rounds into her head. "You okay, T?" she asked the man once the Walker had fallen to the ground.

"Yeah," the man said as he slowly sat up from where he had been laying on the ground. "I'm good. No bites, thanks to you." Emerson nodded and silently held her hand out to the man, helping him to stand up. T-Dog walked over to the Walker and spit on her body. "Let's get out of here," he said, nodding back toward where the cars were. "That suppressor works pretty well, but not good enough to be silent. Something might have heard it." Emerson nodded and silently followed the man up the slight incline toward where the cars were waiting for them.

They met Rick and Daryl about halfway up the incline, both of them had their weapons drawn. "We're fine," Emerson said softly, lifting her hands up in surrender as if that would prove that she was okay. She didn't even think about Daryl's dislike of public affection when she moved closer to him and wrapped her arms around his lower back so that he could feel for himself that she was okay. "I'm sorry," she whispered, tilting her head up so that she could look him in the eye. "I'm sorry I didn't listen to you. I'm sorry if I worried you."

Daryl glanced down at her, contemplating something, Emerson had the distinct feeling that he was forcing himself not to yell at her in the middle of the dark woods. "It's fine," Daryl growled, "Ya wouldn't be ya if ya weren' always runnin' off savin' people without any real plan. Yer not doin' nothin' I haven' come to expect from ya." Emerson nodded and smiled as Daryl wrapped his arm around her shoulders again and began to guide her up the rest of the incline up to the car, "But," he whispered, his lips close to her ear, "if ya keep doin' this I'm gonna have to chain ya to the car when we go to bed at night."

Emerson grinned at him. Rick and T-Dog quickly caught up with them. "Everything's packed up," Rick said with a nod. "We're ready to go as soon as we get back to the cars." He glanced around the trees, his expressions slightly nervous. "The shotgun was quiet, but I don't want to take any risks." He turned back to look at Emerson. "I told you to stand down," he said quietly and Emerson braced herself for another lecture but the older man's face softened and he almost smiled down at her. "But T-Dog explained that he wouldn't have been able to hold the Walker off for much longer. He wouldn't have made it until I got down to him. You saved his life."

T-Dog nodded, "You were an angel, Emerson."

Emerson nodded at him before she turned to grin up at Daryl, as if to say _I told you so_. Daryl shook his head and smiled down at the redhead tucked under his arm. "Yer an angel, Em," he said, a soft chuckle escaping his lips as they reached the cars. "An angel with a shotgun."

"Hey," Emerson said with a shrug. "Not all angels can be the beautiful creatures with the fluffy white wings and the harps. Some of us have to fight to protect what's ours." She meant that Daryl was hers, that she felt a need to protect him even though she was quite sure that he could protect himself. From the look Daryl gave her and the way his blue eyes quickly darted away from his face as if he was uncomfortable, she knew that he understood what she meant. He wouldn't say anything, wouldn't even acknowledge it but he knew he was hers. And he knew that she was his.

He rolled his eyes at her, a playful look on his face - now that the danger seemed to be gone he had relaxed slightly. "Get in the car, woman," he muttered, reaching out and subtly swatting at her butt so that Rick and T-Dog couldn't see it. "We have things to talk about ya an' I."

They didn't talk when they got in the car though. It was dark and Daryl needed to concentrate as he followed the other cars through the woods back onto the road that would drive them to town. By the time that it was light enough that he was able to see in front of him Emerson had fallen back asleep in her seat. Daryl figured that it was just as well. If he tried to talk to her about the fact that she couldn't keep running off to save people without telling him she would try to talk about his penchant for cuddling and their relationship. Daryl cared for Emerson, liked her even, but he didn't know how to show her, he didn't know how to be in a relationship and the last thing he wanted to do was hurt her by screwing something up. But he didn't know how to explain that without hurting her feelings either. This was new territory for Daryl and as much as he wanted to just be with Emerson he was angry at himself for allowing this to happen. He should never have gotten feelings for him and he should never have allowed for her to get feelings for him. All he had to do was look at Rick and Lori to know that feelings in this world didn't do anybody any good.

Emerson and Matt woke up at the same time, just as the caravan of cars passed the sign proclaiming that they were fifteen miles from Glenwood. It was as if both siblings had an internal honing mechanism that alerted them that they were getting closer to their home. The differences on their faces were alarming though. Where Matt looked happy, Emerson looked depressed; where Matt looked excited, Emerson looked terrified; where Matt smiled and moved closer to the window so that he could spot anything familiar, Emerson frowned and sank further into her seat as if she could stop this from being reality simply by not seeing it. The closer they got to the town the louder Matt got, he began telling Daryl stories about his town, his school, and his friends. Emerson got quieter, her breathing got shallower, and Daryl felt as though he had to continually check on her to make sure that she hadn't passed out in her seat.

Emerson remained completely quiet until they reached the Glenwood city limits that afternoon. Daryl had gotten so used to her silence that he actually startled when Emerson finally spoke. "That was my high school," she whispered softly, nodding toward a large building. Daryl glanced at it, Emerson had said that her town was a small one, but this high school seemed big to him, huge even. He could tell that a year or so ago the building had looked amazing, but now it was simply a destroyed, shell of itself. There were overturned buses and trash filling the parking lot and Walkers milling around the fenced in football field. It seemed that someone had attempted to lock most of the Walkers in the enclosure in an attempt to keep the infection from spreading. Emerson's eyes glossed over with tears as they passed a slow moving Walker moving down the side walk. "That was my favorite teacher," she said, nodding toward the man who was moving, his right leg twisted at an unnatural angle. "He taught my music class," she said, "wrote my letter of recommendation to college. He was way too talented to be stuck in a town like this and now look at him. Look what's become of him." She turned to Matt and ordered him to lay down, to put his face down on the seat cushion and then she got on the walkie-talkie and told other the other cars that Daryl would be stopping for a moment.

Daryl looked at her, his eyebrows knit together in confusion as she unbuckled her seatbelt and climbed out of the car. She approached her old teacher slowly, a grim smile gracing her lips when he caught onto her scent and started growling at her. Because of the weird angle his leg had been twisted at he was unable to move too fast, but that didn't stop the Walker from reaching for her, trying desperately to grab her. She stared at him for a full minute, tears flowing down her face as she watched him reach desperately for her. "I'm sorry Mr. Gibson," she whispered softly. "I'm so sorry that this happened to you. That it's come to this. I'm sorry." The Walker quieted at the sound of her voice and for a split second Emerson allowed herself to believe that she saw a flash or recognition in his filmy eyes before he started growling at her again. "I'm so sorry," she whispered again, sobbing at the end of her statement. And then, before Daryl knew what she was doing she had rushed forward and drove the knife he hadn't realized was in her hand into her former teacher's skull.

When the Walker fell to the ground Emerson sank down with him. Sobbing uncontrollably now as she twisted the knife and yanked it out of his head. She wrapped her arms around the body, uncaring of the smell and continued to sob. "Oh Christ," Daryl muttered before he ordered Matt to stay in the car and he climbed out to go get Emerson. She glanced up at him and apologized through her tears when she saw him approaching. "It's okay, honey," Daryl said softly as he moved the Walker out of her grasp and picked her up off the ground. "It's fine," he soothed as he carried the sobbing girl toward the car. "Everything's okay."

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Author's Note:  
I really liked this chapter. Not only did I get to work in the title of the story, but I got to include one of my favorite teachers from high school. And I really liked the last part of the chapter where Emerson killed him and Daryl took care of her.  
Really tugged on my heart strings and I'm the one that wrote it.  
What did you guys think? Did you like it?  
Anyway, thank you, as always, for stopping by to read this chapter.  
But of course, special thanks goes to: _NINJ4 CUPCAKE_ and _PhantomChaos_ for adding this story to their favorites list. And thanks to: _LivCadence_, _Rayne91_, _Siren to the Werewolves_, _morance_, and _deisel jones_ for adding this story to their alerts list.  
But there's no doubt that the **biggest **of special thanks goes to those that **reviewed **on the last chapter:  
Gaby de Brabant: Oh yeah, without a doubt Sophia and the barn scene from season two were definitely the worst. And you're right, if they're going to kill two characters before the midseason break what do they have in store for us in the future? I hadn't even thought of that until you mentioned it! Now I'm worried.  
I'm so glad that you liked the last chapter and I hope that you liked this one too. There was some more development in this one. I'm just excited because I know what's happening in the future and I just want to post all the chapters so that you guys can know too, but I have to pace myself. I'm forcing myself to only update once a day.  
Lady of Denial: Thank you so much for your review! I'm glad that you liked the last chapter and I hope that you liked this one too!  
ResidentGoth: Haha. The cooties stemmed out of a conversation that I had with my little brother. He's seven right now (the conversation earlier where Matt said that Em described him as a _big bouquet of oopsie daisies_ ... that's how I describe my brother). But we were talking one day while we were coloring and I told him that he was my best friend and he looks at me and goes, "But Chloe, we can't be ... you have cooties." It broke my heart, but in a good way.  
And no! Don't put the image of Daryl crying in my head! I can't handle it! It was hard enough in season one when he found out Merle had cut off his hand and he was trying not to cry. I wouldn't know what to do with myself if he actually cried!  
DancingUnderMoonlight18: They can't keep killing people off. They'll run out of characters. And it's not like they can give us knew character to care about. First of all, humans are in short supply now. And second of all, I for one won't forgive them if they kill off Rick, or Daryl, or Glenn. I won't do it. I'll stop watching (maybe).  
I'm glad that you liked the last chapter and I hope that you liked this one too. I definitely had some fun with it. :D (One more chapter until chapter nineteen!)  
FanFicGirl10: Thank you so much for your review! I'm glad that you liked the last chapter and I really hope that you liked this one too. I know, by the way, it's killing me that they're not together yet too. And thank you, I love hearing that people think I'm a good writer! :D As for Matt and Emerson... without giving much away - I'm writing it now. Well not right this second, but I started it this morning. Took a break to update with this chapter, and will go back to writing it after work. I think it's going to be pretty good. So something to look forward to. Thanks again for your review!  
Ravennn: I forgot about your beer. I've had some of it. It is pretty good. And I'm really glad that you liked the last chapter. I hope you like this one as well. There's one more chapter between here and chapter nineteen. And I'm trying really hard not to give anything away. (but maybe). And I'll talk to you soon!  
SilverAdvenger12: Hello dear! I'm so glad that you liked the last chapter and I hope that you liked this chapter and the interaction in it as well. I couldn't let them drive through Emerson's hometown without something very emotional happening to her and letting Daryl take care of her. :D  
Nixie Sin: Aww, you love my story! That makes me very happy! Thank you so much for your review and I hope you loved this chapter too!  
And that's all I've got for now!  
Happy reading until tomorrow!  
Hugs and kisses,  
Chloe Jane.


	19. Chapter Eighteen

Disclaimer: I do not own the Walking Dead, although I'm completely obsessed with it and wished I did. Emerson, however, I do own.

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Check out my tumblr: MissChloeJane.  
I post spoilers. :D

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Just as a heads up, I'm bored.  
So I'm running "open auditions" for Walker parts for upcoming chapters.  
So, if you want to be featured as a Walker in an upcoming chapter. Send me a brief description of yourself (either on tumblr or vis PM on this site)  
and tell me which character you want to "interact" with and how you'd like to die.  
And I might work it into the story.  
Yeah ... this is what happens when I get bored.

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Chapter Eighteen:

Emerson was quiet again once she was back in the car. Daryl had been worried that Matt would do something stupid like ask her about their parents or someone they both knew, but the boy seemed to understand that this was harder for his sister than it was for him. That she had more invested in this town than he had, that she knew more people than he did and that more of her friends were in trouble than his. He sat quietly in the back seat, petting Lou to keep the dog from freaking out at the sight of so many Walkers. As they drove through the town they saw more and more Walkers moving about on the street, Daryl's heart broke a little more for Emerson every time he saw a flash of recognition in her green eyes. She didn't say anything until they had been in the town for thirty minutes. "That was my best friend," she said softly, nodding toward a female Walker that was army crawling down the side walk after the caravan, her legs torn from her body. "She was our class president, prom queen, valedictorian," Emerson said with a nod. "She was amazing and she was going to get the hell out of this town. But she got into a car crash two days after graduation. Lost one of her legs and never left the town." Her green eyes scanned over the Walker, "Do you think someone tried to help her escape this town when the Walkers came?" she asked, turning back to look at Daryl. "Or did they just abandon her? She was crippled, did they just assume that she was a lost cause and leave her hear to become one of them?"

Daryl shrugged as he turned to look at the girl. He didn't know what to say to her. He knew for a fact that if he had known the girl when the Walkers came he would have abandoned her. It was hard enough surviving the Walkers without being held back by a girl with one leg. But he couldn't tell that to Emerson, he couldn't say that about her best friend. Instead he reached out and grabbed her hand, giving it a silent, gentle squeeze. Emerson nodded and shot him a grim smile, she understood what his silence meant. She turned back to look out the window. "I'm being stupid," she whispered as she watched the passing buildings. "I'm getting upset over the old world - that life, those people don't exist anymore. I shouldn't get upset over them anymore."

"Maybe ya should get a little upset," Daryl muttered, looking through the rearview mirror at the Walkers that were now following the car. "They seemed to have realized there's living people in the cars," he continued.

Emerson turned around to look at the Walkers through the back window. "I don't think so," she said. "They can't smell us when we're moving. I think the movement and noise is attracting them. They're not moving fast enough, they're not chasing us. They're following us, they're curious. It's probably been a while since they've seen a car that actually moved. If they knew we were alive they'd be moving faster, surrounding the cars. They're confused now." Daryl stared at the redhead sitting beside him. It must have been because she knew many of these people, recognized them, but her attitude towards the Walkers had changed. When she had killed her teacher it hadn't been because he was a threat to her, it had been out of mercy. She knew him, cared for him, loved him even and she had killed him to put him out of his misery. The Walkers following them seemed to be the same way. She couldn't blame them for their actions, refused to. What she saw was a group of people she had once known, people she had called friends, who couldn't help their actions now. He was startled when he realized that she still loved them, even like this, even though if given the chance they would tear her limb from limb and devour her alive. When she looked at them she didn't see a threat, she saw her friends and family - people she had grown up with, people she had abandoned when she ran away from the town on her father's orders.

He didn't like the thought that at one point Emerson had been in this town at the beginning when it was infested with new, ravenous Walkers. He didn't like thinking that Emerson had come back here for her parents and that if it hadn't been for the neighbor that had killed them she would have let her parents kill her. He couldn't figure out which would have been worse, if Emerson had been thoroughly devoured by her parents or if they had only managed a bite and she had turned into one of the Walkers. He cast a sideways glance at her, trying to imagine her, her skin cold and dirty and hanging off her body at some places. Instead of talking the only sound she was capable of making being a growl as she staggered forward in search of food. He shook his head and cursed quietly to himself, that was no a picture he wanted in his head and he couldn't believe he had let himself imagine it. He turned his head fully to the side so that he could look at her and ensure that she was there, healthy and completely alive.

Emerson had been right about the Walkers in the town. None of them seemed to be a threat to the cars or the people in them. Daryl almost allowed himself to believe that the caravan was going to make it all the way through the sprawling small town without an incident until the caravan stopped. He growled, glancing at the rearview mirror at the approaching Walkers. "What's the hold up, Rick?" he grunted into the walkie-talkie. "Why ain't we movin'?" Rick's voice came in over the radio, telling everyone in the caravan that there were two cars blocking the road, there was no way to squeeze past them and they were going to have to move them. He asked for volunteers who would be willing to help move the cars or keep watch for Walkers. Daryl growled again as Emerson started to unbuckle her seat belt right away. "Keep yer ass in the seat," he growled. "Ya ain't goin' nowhere. I'll go out."

Emerson leveled him with a glare and shook her head angrily. "Daryl," she said softly, her voice a direct contrast to the hard look on her face. "This is my home. These are my people - my friends and some of them are family. I have to be out there. I wouldn't try to stop you if we were in your hometown." Daryl glared at her, he knew that she was right and he could tell by the look on her face that she wasn't about to let him argue with her. He put the SUV in park and started to unbuckle, saying that he would go with her. But Emerson shook her head and shot a glance into the back seat where Matt and Lou were sitting. "One of us has to stay in the car just in case something goes wrong," Emerson said whispered. And then before Daryl could even make the futile suggestion that she stay in the car she had grabbed several of her knives off the floor and opened the door, throwing herself onto the street and giving Daryl no choice but to be the one who had to stay in the car.

"Don't watch, Matt," Daryl growled, worried that Matt would freak out if he watched the group of Walkers that had suddenly taken notice of Emerson and started to rush toward her. Emerson killed one or two of the closest Walkers before she started running toward the front of the caravan where Rick, Maggie, Glenn, and Hershel were struggling to move the broken down cars and fight off Walkers at the same time. It got a little easier once Emerson joined the four. That way two of them could work on each car with Emerson darting around in between them, taking down Walkers. Daryl watched from the front seat, body tense as two Walkers converged on Emerson at the same time. She jammed her knife into one of their heads and it fell down on top of her. The other one dove after them and Daryl growled, convinced that he was never going to see Emerson alive again, but Glenn appeared out of nowhere and swung a shovel at the still moving Walker, cutting its head in half. A moment later he held his hand out to Emerson and pulled her up, she was a little dirtier and worse for the wear, but there were no bite marks that Daryl could see. Emerson smiled and patted Glenn on the back for a moment before she rushed away to take care of a Walker that was sneaking up on Hershel. Daryl couldn't relax, he wouldn't until Emerson was safely back in the SUV, but he had to admit that the girl was in her element now. She was definitely able to hold her own against the Walkers even without his help.

It took the group twenty minutes and too many close encounters to name before the cars had been moved enough that even the largest car in the caravan would be able to squeeze by without hitting them. Emerson glanced down the row to Daryl in the SUV and gave him a thumbs up before she allowed Glenn to help her into Rick's vehicle. They weren't going to risk her running to the back of the caravan through several highly interested Walkers. A moment later the caravan was moving again and this time the Walkers could only be described as chasing the cars. Their confused interest had peaked when they learned that there were living humans in the cars. Daryl was about to get on the radio and ask what the plan was when Emerson's voice crackled in over the walkie-talkie. "There's been a change of plan everyone," she said. "I know you all have a map and we were going to continue on this road to Berry. But with the Walkers following so close behind us that would just lead them to our new front door. Rick says that we don't want them since we don't know what we're going to meet inside the school. So stick close, we're going to take a different road and lose the Walkers on the way."

"Is Emerson okay?" Matt piped up from the back seat. Daryl turned around and asked Matt why he was worried about Emerson. Matt shrugged, "She sounded like she was crying," the little boy said before he turned back to Lou and started to pet him, completely unconcerned about the pack of Walkers that were starting to chase the cars in earnest now.

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It was a stressful hour and a half for Daryl before the cars finally began to stop. The Walkers had chased them all the way out of town and despite the fact that the cars were able to move faster than them they were still chasing them. The cars at the front of the caravan led them over a bridge and stopped just far enough past it that Daryl and his SUV were able to get completely over the bridge. Daryl assumed that part of the reason they had stopped was so that Emerson and Glenn would be able to get back into their cars. Emerson quickly jumped out of Rick's car and began to make her way toward the SUV. She had made it halfway there when Daryl noticed that she was limping. "Dammit," he muttered before he climbed out of the SUV and ran toward Emerson. He made to scoop her up and carry back to their car, but Emerson waved him off and pointed toward the bridge.

"It's a drawbridge," she said. "The Walkers haven't caught up to us yet, but they will. The drawbridge being up might not hold them off forever, but it will for a while. I think it has a back up generator, so even if the power's been knocked out here." Daryl ran ahead of her toward the bridge so that Emerson wouldn't have to keep struggling to get there. He found the button and pressed it, smiling when the machinery came to life and the bridge began to lift up. He turned back just as Emerson got to him and asked her how she knew about this. Emerson shrugged, "We used to do a lot of drag racing on that road during high school. The button is on this side of the bridge, it can't be lowered from the other side. Whenever the cops tried to arrest us for racing we'd speed over here, lift the bridge and then take a back road home so we wouldn't be caught."

"Ya were a badass," Daryl said with an approving nod as the two stood and watched, making sure that the bridge went all the way up.

Emerson shrugged again. "You're a badass Daryl. I was just a trouble maker." She gestured back toward the cars. "We should get going. The bridge should stop them for a while, but it doesn't mean that we want them to see us leaving. That'll just give them motivation to find a way to follow us." Daryl nodded and, despite Emerson's noise of protest, he scooped the redhead up and carried her back toward the SUV. "I can walk you know," Emerson grumbled, all the same she wrapped her arms around his shoulders and rested her head on his chest.

"What's wrong?" Daryl asked as the two made their way toward their car. Emerson tried to tell him that nothing was wrong. But Daryl shook his head and shot her a look that clearly said he wasn't taking any of her shit that day. Emerson sighed and told him that when she had been brought down by the Walkers the one that she had killed had landed weirdly on her leg and knocked her knee cap out of place. She hadn't even realized it until Hershel had pointed it out and knocked it back into place. "Jesus," Daryl muttered as he opened her car door and placed her in the passenger seat. "How did I not notice that?"

Emerson waited until he was sitting in the driver's seat and they were moving again before she answered his question. "We were standing in front of one of the dead cars when he noticed it, couldn't see the SUV from there. Besides, it didn't take more than a second, Hershel just grabbed a two by four and smacked my knee with it, slapping the knee cap back into place." She smiled softly when she saw the disgusted, worried look on Daryl's face. "It's the same thing they would have done at the hospital," she said with a shrug. "You know if they still existed. They just would have given me pain killers and not done it with a two by four. The bruise is gonna look worse than the actual injury."

"Shouldn't ya be wearin' a brace or somethin'?" Daryl asked, shooting a concerned look at Emerson's legs, though with the pants she was wearing he couldn't tell which one had been injured.

"Probably," Emerson said with a shrug. "But I'm more mobile without one. It'll be fine, leg's as good as before just slightly sore. I'll be limping for a while, but without a brace I'll have a better range of movement. Which, let's face it, is pretty important these days." Daryl wanted to argue with her, but she was right. You were a sitting duck if you weren't able to move and take care of yourself. He changed the subject, nodding toward the cars in front of them before he asked her how much longer until they made it to Berry. "We're taking the long way," Emerson explained. "Added a good hour to our journey by taking the draw bridge road. And Rick decided that we're stopping for the night so we'll be pulling off into the woods soon. We don't really know what we're going to meet at the school tomorrow so he doesn't want to get there at night. We're gonna stop soon, have some dinner, and then wake up before dawn tomorrow to drive the rest of the way." She turned to look at Matt, "I've already promised Carl I'd read some more tonight, what do you say, Matty? More Harry Potter?"

The kid nodded, happy that his sister was okay and that she was willing to read to him that night. Emerson had been right, the group pulled off the main road thirty minutes later and found a place in the trees to make camp for the night. Emerson wanted to help with gathering fire wood and making dinner but neither Rick, Hershel, or Daryl would allow her to do anything more than sit on a log. Hershel had agreed with her, that she would do just fine without a leg brace, but that didn't mean that he wanted her putting any unnecessary strain on her leg. So while everyone else was getting ready for dinner Emerson sat on her log and read Harry Potter to the two young boys. Once the dinner had been made Emerson wasn't allowed to get her own meal, Glenn got it for her and Daryl sat next to her, practically trying to feed her. Emerson rolled her eyes and when she was finished with her meal she stood up from the log, claiming that she was tired and that she was going to go to bed. As she tried to make her way to the SUV Daryl quickly stood up and followed closely behind her, his hand resting gently on her lower back, guiding her toward the car. "I could get there on my own," Emerson pointed out softly. "You could have stayed with the group. Matt's already in the car. We wouldn't have been alone."

Daryl shook his head, "I want," he paused that wasn't the right word. "I need," he corrected himself, "I need to make sure that yer okay. Ya keep telling me that yer fine, but I need to know that yer okay for myself."

Emerson smiled up at him and allowed him to wrap his arm more soundly around her small frame. She understood how hard it was for him to say that, even if there was no one around but them. "Okay," she said with a nod. "Then, take me to bed, or lose me forever."

Daryl chuckled at her, he couldn't name the movie he was quoting, but he more than understood the reference. "Not sure we can do that with yer little brother in the back seat."

"Is that your only issue?" Emerson asked, her tone teasing, she thought that he was joking around with her. "Because that can be fixed once we're at the college." They had made it to the car then and Emerson opened the passenger door, she sent a saucy wink in Daryl's direction as she climbed into the car and shut the car door on Daryl's still stunned and silent face.

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It was a quiet night. Glenn and Maggie had been keeping watch and they didn't see a single Walker. It seemed that Emerson's plan with the drawbridge had been a smart one. They woke everyone up about an hour before sunrise when the sky was just beginning to lighten and the group had a quick breakfast before they got back in their cars and on the road again. Emerson's SUV was full. She was driving, despite Daryl's assurance that he could drive, Daryl was in the passenger seat and Lori had allowed Carl to join them so Lou, Matt, and Carl were squished into the back seat. Carl was practicing his reading skills by reading from the Harry Potter book to everyone. Daryl didn't really care about the book, he wanted to talk to Emerson, but he didn't know what to talk about because all he wanted to know was if she had been joking or serious about what she had said the night before. But that wasn't exactly a question he could ask her in front of her brother and Carl. Besides, she seemed pretty worried about what was going to happen once they got to the school, he didn't want to interrupt her. She had told the group at breakfast that if they made good time and didn't run into any trouble they should arrive at the school by ten in the morning. That would give them time to run observation and to come up with a plan of attack. They might be able to clear a safe zone by that evening if they moved very fast. Rick hadn't wanted to make any plans until he knew for sure what they were facing, but Daryl could tell by the look on Emerson's face that she was already making plans based off of what she remembered from the school.

They made even better time than Emerson had expected. They made it to the school by nine-thirty that morning. Emerson had been right, it was a small school and it was built like a fortress. There were tall, thick stone walls that surrounded the entire campus and the grounds, it took Glenn and Maggie an hour and a half to drive all the way around the campus, scouting out for any breaks in the walls, but there weren't any. No matter what had happened on the inside of the school, the walls had held firm. At the front of the school there was a tall wrought iron gate that opened up to the staff and student parking lot, the lot had never been paved, it was a field filled with cars and Walkers, but the best part of the lot was that another large stone wall and another iron gate separated the lot from the actual campus buildings. They would be able to take over the school in shifts. With the binoculars they learned that, like the front gate, the one at the back of the lot was chained closed, keeping the Walkers inside the school and the ones in the lot separate. If anyone had been worried about what they would find when they arrived at the school they needn't have been. Taking it over seemed extremely plausible now.

Daryl approached Emerson, she was standing in front of the gate with Rick, the two already discussing a plan of attack on the Walkers in the parking lot, and he wrapped his arms around her shoulders from behind. "Ya were right," he whispered into the redhead's ear. "This place is perfect," he said louder so that Rick could hear him.

Rick nodded, his eyes surveying the Walkers who were slowly starting to take notice of the group at the gate. "I really think this could be our new home," he said with a nod. "I really do."

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Author's Note:  
And that's it for now! Chapter nineteen is up next. And **BIG** things are happening!  
(Check out my tumblr... I'm posting a spoiler as soon as I post this chapter!)  
But as far as this chapter goes I hope that you liked it!  
Thank you for stopping by and reading it.  
But special thanks goes to: _Imahica_, _ResidentGoth_, and _ThornRose16_ who added this story to their favorites list. (Fifty people have added this story to their favorites list. That's amazing!) And special thanks to: _Endless Questions_, _Entwinedlove_, _Imahica_, _LamboTwin_, _Rebecca2810_, _ThornRose16_, _deisel jones_, _vampirente_, and _wolfhappiness _who added this story to their alerts list. (Eighty people have added this story to their alerts list. You have no idea how amazing that is.)  
But the **BIGGEST** of all thank you's goes to those of you that **REVIEWED** the last chapter. I got so many reviews on the last chapter. It was overwhelming but in such a good way. Keep it up guys! I love it!  
shaybay55: You were reviewing at the exact same time that I was posting my chapter yesterday so I didn't get to respond to your review until today. Thank you for your review. I'm so glad that you liked chapter sixteen and I hope that you liked the two most recent chapters too! And I have to admit, I squealed a little bit at your "Daryl/Emerson all the way" I like that people are shipping them! EEEEEE!  
isopt: Hello dear! I'm so glad that you liked the last chapter. I was struggling not to make it too sad, but I had to stress what it meant to go home to Emerson. I hope that you liked this chapter too. I tried not to do anything too personal like in the last chapter because between chapter seventeen and what I have planned for you in nineteen ... it's emotionally tiring. I figured I'd give you guys a break with this chapter. Anyway, thank you for your review and I hope to hear from you soon.  
StanziWood: Exactly, if I'm still around when the zombie apocalypse happens I'm grabbing my family (if they're around) any friends that might be useful and I'm getting the hell out of dodge. I figure it's easier to kill zombies when they're not someone you know.  
Anyway, thank you for your review and I'm so glad that you like the story. I always read about the readers of this story. Like are they new fans to WD, or are they just trying it out, or are they like really big fans. So it's always nice to meet a BIG one. And I'm glad that the plot and Emerson are refreshing. I've purposefully stayed away from any WD fics since I started writing this one because I don't want it to get tainted or shaped by other people's ideas.  
You keep reading, and I will definitely keep up the good work!  
MagicalElf73: I was so excited when I got to mention the title, I'm a bit of a dork that way. Ever since I changed the title I've been waiting for a chance to use it. But Emerson doesn't use a shotgun all that often so I had to be patient (which is hard for me). And it is gratifying, like as far as this story goes I'm happy with most of what I write, but the part with the teacher - I wrote that, reread it and I could see it clearly in my head and I felt like it was really good. :D Thank you for your review, dear!  
Gaby de Brabant: I made you cry? I'd be lying if I said that didn't make me happy. (Not that I want people to cry, but that I wrote something that did! I don't know, it's hard to explain.)You shouldn't be too worried yet, I gave you guys a break in this chapter, but the next few chapters are going to be pretty emotional, just so you're aware. I'm glad that you liked the last chapter and I hope you liked this one as well. I've been writing ahead (I'm about three chapters ahead of you guys) and if you liked Matt in the last chapter just wait, in about three chapters you're going to love him! You made me laugh with that last sentence. I wouldn't want to be a Walker either if I could be Emerson. Good thinking there!  
Lady of Denial: Hello darling! Thank you so much for your review! I'm glad that you liked the last chapter and I hope you liked this one too! As far as this being, "one of the BEST Walking Dead stories" you've read ... you just made me blush. I'm so happy that you think that! You have no idea. Makes me want to post the **BIG THINGS** chapter today, but I'm going to force myself to be patient and wait. Thanks again!  
FanFicGirl10: Hello! I'm so glad that you love the story and Daryl and Emerson. Thank you so much for your review! And don't worry, their friendship's taking that next step very soon. :D  
JDMlvr1: I took it fairly easy on you guys as they made it through the town in this chapter. But just wait ... I have some big plans in about three to four chapters. It's going to be pretty amazing and emotionally tiring. I'm glad that you liked the last chapter and I hope that you liked this one too! Thank you so much for your review (hey that rhymed!)  
DancingUnderMoonlight18: The wait will be over as of tomorrow morning! Be excited! I'm so glad that you liked the last chapter and I hope that you liked this one too. It wasn't as emotional as the last chapter, but I'm giving you guys a break between the last chapter and the very emotional chapter I have planned for nineteen!  
ResidentGoth: My Daryl reminds you of your boyfriend? That's not kind of scary! I'm kind of jealous of that. I like that type. Although I can't complain too much, I'm currently dating a navy seal. He's kind of the same way ... mushy and sweet on the inside but he really doesn't want anyone to know that so he pretends to be gruff. (the only thing he doesn't pretend about is being a badass).  
And no! Don't tell me that 12 year olds don't want to be best friends with their sisters! I dread the day that happens with Holden. I like cuddling him too much for that (although when he gets older he'll probably be grumpy and not want piggy back rides anymore so that won't matter. Ah well, I have five years till he gets to that point.)  
Angsty Daryl sounds fun by the way! He doesn't talk a lot about emotions on the show and he should! But you're right, him crying on the show ... ALL THE FEELS.  
gypsykl79: Thank you so much for your review! I'm glad that you liked the last chapter and I hope you liked this one too. And I'm not even going to apologize for making you cry. :D  
SilverAdvenger12: Aww, darling! I'm so sorry to make you depressed. I don't feel bad for making people cry, but I feel bad for depressing you. I hope you still liked the chapter, even though it was sad. And I hope you liked this one as well!  
wolfhappiness: Hello new reviewer! I'm so glad that you found my story and that you stuck around long enough to get to chapter seventeen! I hope that you liked this chapter as well. Seeing as you're fairly new to the WD world let me welcome you and assure you that you will soon be as obsessed as the rest of us. :D  
A few things you should know are: (1) We are no longer a democracy, it's a Ricktatorship. (2) Grimes/Dixon should have been a legitimate choice in this past election. (3) Most people tended to hate Lori until she died, then people felt bad (I was pretty neutral on Lori). (4) Carl is deaf and he never stays in the house. (5) Either you absolutely love Carol/Daryl or you're like me and you throw something at the tv every time there's sexual tension (which sucks, because I legitimately like Carol when she's not with Daryl). (6) Shane's tough ... you can't flat out hate him or totally love him - but most people find that if put in the middle of a zombie apocalypse they'd act like Shane. (7) You NEED to have a zombie contingency plan (mine includes Daryl). (8) Daryl is a badass ... I've never met anyone in this fandom that doesn't know that. (9) And we're all secretly asking for a zombie apocalypse this Christmas. (There's the Spark notes version at least)  
Anyway, I'm so glad that you love Emerson! I've been trying my hardest to make her a real character. It's really easy to make OCs Mary Sues and that is the last thing I want for Emerson so I'm giving her flaws (her inability to think before she jumps into a plan for example) but unlike most of the OCs in Daryl fics ... she can take care of herself, even if Daryl doesn't like letting her.  
And I've rambled for far too long! Thank you for your review and I hope to hear from you again soon!  
Nixie Sin: Ahhh! Rage comics! I love it! Well I, for one, am glad that I have the writing magic to keep you reading and reviewing! I hope that continues! And I hope that this chapter lives up to the other "Fantastical work" I've done on this story! :D  
Imahica: Hello new reviewer! I'm so glad that you like the story! And I'm glad that you're able to imagine yourself as Emerson! Because that's the point of her in the end. And if you've blushed so far at her and Daryl's sweet moments just wait until the next chapter! You're more than welcome for the story. Thank you for your review!  
And yeah, that's all I've got for now. That was intense.  
In case you guys are wondering about my personal life... I'm listening to my Christmas playlist on my itunes right now.  
This has put me both in a good mood (because who can be unhappy when they're listening to Christmas music) and a bad mood (because I've become one of those people who listen to Christmas music before Thanksgiving. Which is NOT OKAY).  
So I need to force the music to stop.  
Anyway, I sincerely hope you liked this chapter (review to let me know).  
Until tomorrow (AND CHAPTER NINETEEN) happy reading!  
Hugs and kisses,  
Chloe Jane.


	20. Chapter Nineteen

Disclaimer: I do not own the Walking Dead, although I'm completely obsessed with it and wished I did. Emerson, however, I do own.

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Check out my tumblr: MissChloeJane.  
I post spoilers. :D

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And this is the much awaited chapter nineteen. I'm really happy with it and I ...  
Who am I kidding? I've built this chapter up so much that all of you have skipped down to the story.  
No one's actually still reading this, are they?  
Are you?  
No?  
I didn't think so... :p

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Chapter Nineteen:

The plan had been simple enough on paper. Lori, Hershel, Beth, Matt, and Lou were going to stand in front of the iron gates, they were going to try to draw as many Walkers there as they could so that people could get into the car lot without being ambushed right away. If things went wrong they were supposed to get into the biggest SUV and drive away. They weren't going to wait for anybody, or try to save anyone, they were going to run away. Lori had been upset about that rule, Carl wasn't going to be with her and she couldn't imagine leaving without her son, but Rick and Carl had both put their feet down on the subject. Everyone else was going to climb up onto the wall surrounding the lot. Daryl, Rick, Carol, and Carl were going to stay on the wall, providing cover for those who went in. T-Dog, Glenn, Maggie, and Emerson were going to drop into the car lot and do most of the Walker killing. Each person was assigned someone on the wall who would watch their back and take care of any Walkers who tried to sneak up on them.

Emerson had gotten a lot of arguments against her part in the plan. Originally Rick was going to go down into the lot and Emerson was going to stand on the wall. Daryl hadn't even been a fan of that plan, he had wanted Emerson safely behind the iron gate but she had refused. And then she had argued that Rick couldn't go into the lot. Her argument had been sound - Rick was the leader of the group, if something happened to him they would all be lost. She wouldn't let that happen. But that left three people on the ground and five on the wall. Daryl could see the wheels turning in Emerson's head before she even opened her mouth. "No," he said, his tone firm and angry. "Ya ain't goin' down there, Em. Yer injured, even if ya say yer fine. Yer not riskin' it."

Emerson rolled her eyes at him. She had expected this. She sighed, forcing herself not to yell at him for his protectiveness. "We're making it hard with four people down on the ground," she said, turning to look at the whole group, hoping to appeal to someone who could tell Daryl that he was being an idiot. "We can't only send three people down there, that would be suicide. We need at least four people down there."

Daryl frowned when he looked at Rick and noticed that the man was nodding. He didn't like that they were agreeing with the girl. Didn't they see that sending her down there would be suicide for her? He shook his head, "Then I'll go down there."

"We need you and your crossbow up on the wall," Rick said, his voice stern. Daryl's frown deepened, Rick was playing right into Emerson's plan. Didn't the man see that?

Emerson nodded, "I make more sense," she said softly. "I'm not as good with a gun as Rick or Carol, or even Carl. You're the only one who can work your crossbow. I'm good with my knives." She turned to look at Daryl, her eyes silently begging him to see her point. "Do you remember the woods?" she asked him. "My knives are really no good from up high. They're good on the ground where I can get them back. If I'm going to be any help at all I need to be on the ground."

She could see that Daryl was going to argue so she raised her eyebrows at him, waiting for his argument. "An' what about yer leg?" he asked her, nodding down toward the injured leg. She wouldn't let him see the bruise, she flat out refused which made him think that it was probably worse than she had thought it would be. If her limping was any indication her leg was at the very least stiff. "That's almost a ten foot drop. Yer already injured, what if ya break yer leg?"

Emerson shrugged, "Then I'll be great Walker bait. Make it easier for the others. You can stand right above me and take out all the Walkers that try to get to me and that'll be less Walkers available to hurt anybody else." She turned to look at Daryl and her face softened when she noticed the tense, worried look on his face. "It's going to be fine," she said softly. "I've jumped from more than ten feet before. And with you on the wall, watching my six - the lot's going to be the safest place to be." Daryl scoffed, she had more faith in him and his skills than he did. She didn't give him a chance to argue though, she approached the wall and turned her head to look at him, "Give me a boost?" she asked, bracing herself for the pain she was going to have to go through to climb the wall.

Daryl waited until the group by the iron gates began to make noise and draw the Walkers towards the iron gates before he gave Emerson a boost onto the wall. It wasn't a smooth stone wall so she was able to wedge her toes on top of stones and use her hands to cling to the wall. As he and Glenn boosted Carol and Maggie onto the wall too Emerson began her slow climb to the top of the wall. Daryl climbed faster than her and by the time she made it to the top Daryl was there, holding out a hand to her to help her climb onto the top of the wall. She nodded her thanks to him and quickly dropped his hand before she turned Rick and awaited his instructions.

"Okay," Rick said with a nod once they were all on the wall. "Carol, you're going to cover Maggie. Daryl you'll cover -"

"Emerson," Daryl growled out, interrupting Rick's instructions. "I'll be coverin' Emerson."

"I wanted you to cover T-Dog actually," Rick said.

Daryl shook his head, "I best be coverin' Emerson or she ain't goin' down to the ground.  
Rick glanced at Emerson and she rolled her eyes and shrugged at him. Neither of them were going to be able to convince Daryl to cover anyone else. "Okay," Rick said with a nod, realizing that there was no point to arguing, "Daryl will cover Emerson. I've got Glenn and Carl will have T-Dog. Spread out along this wall so you're not all dropping in at the same place and wait for my signal. I'll whistle when it's time to drop down. Everyone be careful. Despite Emerson's lack of fear of breaking a bone and becoming Walker bait we don't actually want that to happen. Those of you with guns, you have extra ammo? Silencer's attached? The last thing we want to do is draw more Walkers in. Okay, spread out."

"Remember," Glenn said, taking a moment to make eye contact with each of the people going down into the car lot. "Tuck and roll, that's gonna be the best way to get in there without hurting yourself. Spring up fast, you won't be able to fight off Walkers while you're rolling on the ground." He turned to say something to Maggie and Emerson turned away, a blush rising on her cheeks, letting the two have their own private moment before they each headed off to where they'd be entering the car lot.

"So where are we going?" she asked Daryl softly, trying to give the two lovers some space. Daryl didn't talk, he was still angry at her for convincing everyone else that it was a good idea for her to go down into the car lot. But he jerked his head to the left, indicating the general direction they should start moving. "Okay then," Emerson said with a soft nod as she brushed past him and began to make her way carefully across the wall.

"This is good," Daryl said about five minutes later. They weren't on the far side of the lot, but they were quite a ways from the others and the large group of Walkers by the front fence. Someone on the other side of the gate had grabbed a pole and was working on killing as many Walkers as they could to make it easier on those who would be inside the grounds with the Walkers in just a few short moments. Emerson turned to look at him, her arms held out to her sides, she opened her mouth as if she was going to say something, but no words came out. Daryl moved closer to her and laid his hands heavily on her shoulders, "Ya got yer knives?" he asked her, his voice gruff. Emerson nodded silently. "Take 'em out, let me see 'em," Daryl said, wanting to be sure.

Emerson shook her head at him, but she lifted up her shirt enough that he could see the belt that held all seven of her knives, each of them in a separate leather holster so that she didn't stab herself during the jump. He nodded. "I'll be up here," he said, his tone still hard. "Watchin' yer back. But watch yer six. An' if at any point I tell ya to duck -"

"I duck," Emerson interrupted, smiling slightly at how much Daryl was worried about her. She knew that something was going on between them, she'd be a fool to miss it. But she was surprised to see that the concern and worry on his face and in his voice almost matched Glenn's when he had been talking to Maggie.

"An' if it gets too much for ya, cover yerself with a body. I'll take care of the rest," Daryl said with a nod.

Emerson smiled softly at him and reached out to pat his upper arm in a soothing manner. "It's all going to be fine, Daryl," she said softly. "You don't have to worry so much."

"I'll stop worryin' for the day once this is all finished. An' yer safe," Daryl muttered, his eyes gazing over Emerson's shoulders at the car lot and the Walkers beyond. "An' I don' like the look of the cars," he added, "somethin' could be hidin' under them."

"That's why I have combat boots," Emerson said, nodding down at her boots and wiggling her toes inside of them. "They've been grabbed by a lot of Walkers but none have bitten through yet."

"Let's keep it that way," Daryl muttered. Emerson was about to tell him to stop worrying again when Rick's high pitched whistle sounded across the car lot. She grabbed Daryl's hand for one second, giving it a too-tight squeeze before she turned back toward the inside of the wall and prepared to jump. She could have sworn she heard Daryl mutter, "Here goes nothing," as she jumped off the ledge.

She had jumped off buildings before. Even without Glenn's advice Emerson would have been fine. She knew that she needed to land on the ground with her knees bent and that she needed to straighten them out quickly, causing her body to jump up slightly, to take the stress off of her legs and knees. When she landed the second time she would need to tuck and roll forward to get rid of any excess momentum before she stood up and steadied herself. It seemed simple enough, but it all had to be done in a matter of seconds. And as she was plummeting toward the ground all she could think about was _don't land on your head. That'll kill you_.

Once she had landed on the ground and was rolling all Emerson could do was laugh at herself, don't land on your head - it was probably the worst advice ever. But once she had stood up the laughter died in her throat. She didn't have time to laugh now, she had a job to do. And she couldn't afford to be distracted now. There were two Walkers approaching her, one from the right and one from the left, Emerson was watching them out of the corners of her eyes, trying to decide which one she needed to take out first when an arrow flew straight into the head of the one to her left. Emerson watched as the Walker fell to the ground with a thump, she shrugged - it seemed as though Daryl had helped her make her decision as to which Walker she would go after, but by the time she had turned toward the one on her right Daryl had shot that one too. She turned around to face him and shot him a glare while she shook her head.

Daryl lifted two of his fingers to his eyes for a moment before he turned them around so that they were pointing over the car lot, silently telling her that she needed to watch what was going on around her. She glared at him for a moment longer before she pulled two of her knives out of her belt and started to run toward the nearest Walker. Rick had estimated that there were about fifty Walkers on the field, that was a lot of killing that needed to be done before the parking lot was safe. She caught her first two Walkers by complete surprise. The first one hadn't even been looking at her when she had slammed her knife to the hilt through the back of its head and twisted it before she pulled it out. The second one had been trying to sneak up on Glenn when Emerson threw her knife at his head. "Nice one," Glenn congratulated as Emerson approached to get her knife back.

"We aim to please," she said, giving the young Asian boy a mock salute.

"What's your count?" Glenn asked her. "I'm at four."

It took Emerson just a moment to realize that Glenn meant how many Walkers had she killed. "Two," she said, turning around at the sound of Daryl's shouted warning and jamming her knife into the forehead of the Walker that had been approaching her faster than Daryl could reload his crossbow. "Three," she said with a shrug before she moved away from Glenn and headed back closer to the wall so that she could draw some Walkers away from him.

Three of them had followed close behind her. One tried to close in one her from the side while the other two were coming at her from the front. Emerson crossed her right arm over her body and then used all of her strength and momentum to swing her arm back and drive a knife into the Walker's head on her side. She quickly pulled another knife out of her belt, spinning it so that she could get the correct grip on the thing and as the Walker she had just killed was sliding down the wall dead she threw the two knives in her hands at the Walkers approaching her from the front. She smiled in grim satisfaction as she grabbed the knife out of the head of the Walker next to her and put it back in her belt as she walked toward the Walkers in front of her.

Daryl had been watching Emerson closely, much more closely than he would have been watching any one else if Rick had tried to pair him with someone else. He had to admit that when she first got into the lot he had killed those two Walkers just to keep her from having to deal with them. Deep down he knew that she could handle herself, but from his position on the wall she had seemed so small and helpless that before she could even orient herself to her surroundings he had already taken out two Walkers that were barely a threat to her. Because the truth was that Walkers moved quite a bit slower than their human counterparts, they could be easily outrun if a person didn't have to run for a long time. The problem with trying to outrun the Walkers was that they never got tired. Ever, they were slower than a person, but they could run longer, further. Eventually, they'd catch up with whatever they were chasing.

But he had just seen Emerson take out three Walkers at fairly close range without even batting an eye. She could definitely handle herself out there and every time he watched her kill a Walker he had to remind himself that he knew she was good like this, that it shouldn't have been a surprise. He shouldn't be shocked every time Emerson managed to take down a Walker that looked like it was going to be the end of her. It shouldn't be a surprise that she was able to not only take care of herself, but people around her too.

What happened next though was a surprise, Emerson had just straightened up from pulling her knife out of the Walker's head, the one that had died against the wall when another one came out of seemingly nowhere and grabbed her, lifting her off the ground with his skinny looking, but incredibly strong arms. The thing had appeared out of nowhere so quickly that Daryl didn't know what was happening until Emerson was already screaming.

He couldn't do anything. Emerson needed him and Daryl couldn't move. In the next few seconds Daryl could see what was going to happen. The Walker was going to bite Emerson, the angle he had grabbed her at made it all to easy for the male Walker to bite her neck. But Emerson was strong, brave even. She would fight him, try to get away. The damage would already be done though, she had been bit - she would get the fever. He wondered if she would keep fighting the Walkers in the car lot or if because she already knew she was a lost cause if she'd just sacrifice herself for the others, allow herself to become Walker bait, the middle of an intense feeding frenzy so that all the others had to do was pick the Walkers off one by one. Would she try to stay alive, to wait so that she could say goodbye to Matt? Or would she not want him to see her that way. If she did stick around to say goodbye to Matt how would she want to die? Would she want someone to shoot her in the head before the fever killed her? Or would she ask them to wait until the fever had killed her but she hadn't come back yet? Would she ask Daryl to kill her? He wouldn't want to, probably wouldn't be able to. But if she needed him to he'd have to try. He briefly wondered if they could keep her alive as a Walker, chained to something, feed her. He shook his head, he was being as stupid as Hershel had been with his Walkers in the barn. There was no safe way to keep her, she'd have to die.

Daryl had almost accepted the fact that Emerson was going to die when her screaming caught his attention. She was yelling his name. He glanced at her, seeing her for the first time since the Walker had grabbed her. She couldn't stab the Walker, her hands were too busy holding its face away from her and other Walkers were slowly advancing on her, but it hadn't bit her yet. That sobered him up and he quickly came to his senses. His crossbow was already loaded, he simply leveled it and sent an arrow flying through the air, narrowly missing Emerson's head before it sank itself between the Walker's eyes.

The Walker's hold on Emerson broke immediately and she fell to the ground in a crouched position. She stayed there for a moment as the other Walkers approached her and Daryl worried that maybe he had been right, maybe she had been bitten. But then she stood up, holding five of her seven knives in one of her hands. She began throwing them so quickly at the Walkers that had been approaching her that Daryl had no idea how she was able to aim. But she hit each and every one of them right between their eyes. Once she had taken care of all of the ones that had been threats to her she grabbed her knives out of their heads and headed further into the car lot where most of the Walkers had congregated. She waved, an almost friendly greeting, at Glenn as she ran past him.

"That was a close one," Glenn said, relief flooding his face when he saw that Emerson was completely safe.

"Yeah," Emerson said with a nod. "Where were you when I was fighting not to get bit?"

"I was trying to make sure that twenty of his friends didn't surround you. Figured that would give you more of a fighting chance than if I tried to run over to you!" Glenn defended himself before he realized that Emerson was laughing at him, she hadn't been angry at him for staying where he had been, she had been picking on him. "You bitch," he said, shaking his head. "I'm on nine now."

"Eleven," Emerson said, sticking her tongue out at the man before she continued on her way toward the Walkers that were still grouped around the front gate. She figured the Walker killing would go quicker if she was picking some of them off from the back of the group while Hershel and Beth killed them through the bars from the front.

It took the group another forty minutes to kill all of the Walkers in the car lot and to check inside and under all the cars to ensure that the area was completely safe. Rick walked around the top of the wall back toward the gate and Carol handed Carl down to his dad and then she started to climb down the wall on the inside of the car lot so that she could help T-Dog, Maggie, Emerson, and Glenn start piling up the bodies in the front right corner of the lot. Rick cut open the chain on the gate and he and Hershel began to move cars into the enclosure. They had to move fast so that everyone would be inside the enclosure and rick could chain the gates closed with their own lock before all the noise they had made drew more Walkers from the outside toward the school.

Instead of helping with anything that needed to be taken care of Daryl dropped down from the wall and only stopped once on his way to Emerson so that he could stomp on the face of the Walker that had almost killed her, he smiled a grim, satisfied smile when the Walker's face cracked under his foot. Then he ran over to Emerson who was joking with Glenn about something as they each dragged a Walker toward the pile in the corner. He didn't wait for her to notice him, he didn't even care about the Walker in her hands he grabbed her around the shoulders and spun her around so that he could crush her face to his chest. "Dare!" she gasped in surprise as she dropped the Walker she had been dragging and wrapped her arms around his waist so that he could feel her, solid and alive. "What was that for?"

Daryl shook his head and buried his face in her hair, he couldn't even voice what he wanted to tell her right then. He couldn't explain to her that he had seen what would have happened to him if she had been bitten by that son of a bitch Walker. He didn't know how to tell her that he would never forgive himself for putting her in that danger - it didn't matter that she had made it out safe. She should have never been in that situation to begin with. He was to blame for that.

He didn't realize that he was holding her too tight or that he was shaking with his relief until one of Emerson's hands lifted to his head and she threaded her fingers in his hair, gently carding through his hair. "It's fine," she said softly, her voice soothing like it was when she was talking to Matt. "I'm fine. You saved me, thank you."

Daryl shook his head, she didn't realize that if it weren't for him he wouldn't have needed to save her. She didn't seem to realize that if only he had been paying better attention the Walker would never have gotten her to begin with. He wanted to tell her all of that, but the moment he opened his mouth Matt came running at them, and wrapped himself around Emerson's lower half. The boy didn't have anything to say either, he was simply happy that his sister was okay. Emerson smiled down at her brother and stooped enough to press a soft, reassuring kiss on the top of his head before she lifted her concerned green eyes to look at Daryl. "I'm fine," she said softly, hoping that Daryl would stop shaking so much. She was worried about him.

Daryl growled and surged forward. He knew that she was okay, but he needed one last reassurance, he needed to know for sure. Emerson gasped in surprise as Daryl's dry lips landed on top of hers in a demanding kiss. She lifted her hand from Matt's shoulder to cling to Daryl's arms. He thought she was silently telling him to stop, but when he started to pull away from her she whimpered and stood up on her tip toes in an attempt to keep the contact. Daryl smiled against her lips and leaned closer to her. Now that he knew she wasn't going to push him away the kiss became less harsh and demanding. It became the soft, wet slide of his lips against hers. She let out a soft giggle when Daryl ran his tongue along the seam of her lips, but instead of letting him in she sucked his bottom lip into her mouth and bit down on it gently. She giggled again when he let out a strangled growling noise at the contact. He had always been a sucker for when she bit her lip, he should have known it would be even worse when she bit his. He was about to pick her up off the ground, ready to forget about Matt who was probably watching them - the kid was probably scarred for life, when Glenn cleared his throat from behind them.

"As much fun as this is to watch, guys," the Asian boy said once the two had pulled away from each other. "Rick wants to burn these bodies before dark so let's get a move on."

Emerson quickly untangled herself from Daryl's grasp. She gave him a nervous smile, a blush rising on her cheek bones as she bent down to whisper something in Matt's ear. The little boy nodded and once he had run off she stooped even further to pick up the Walker she had been dragging so that she continue her walk to the pile of Walker bodies.

Daryl was about to turn around and get to work too, he figured that their moment was done. But Emerson dropped her body on the ground and ran back to him quickly. She jumped into his arms with a squeal, never once worrying that Daryl wouldn't catch her, and she pressed one more kiss onto his lips before she twisted out of his arms and moved away from him to get more Walker bodies.

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Author's Note:  
Ta da! The next step in their relationship. Brought about by a near death experience. :D  
What dod you guys think about this chapter? The fact that I almost killed Emerson? The kiss?  
Did you like it? Love it? Hate it? Let me know! I like hearing these things!  
(Though if you hated it try to be nice when you tell me. You might hurt my feelings otherwise.)  
Anyway, thanks for stopping by to read this. But special thanks goes to: _Bring-Me-A-Horizon, CharlotteAHJones, Embers in the flames, MichelleJoy, PosessedPen, TheWalkingD3AD, XxBEKKAHxX, littylollypop_, and _Xsilent-spiritX _who added this story to their favorites list. And to: _Bring-Me-A-Horizon, CharlotteAHJones, Embers in the flames, IndigoFades, MichelleJoy, Otaku Wench, VealMaster, XxBEKKAHxX, roxas' billa kaulitz_, and _Xsilent-spiritX _who added this story to their alerts lists.  
But as always the **biggest **of special thanks goes to those of you that **reviewed** on the last chapter:  
IamNotWalkerBait: Hello new reviewer! I'm glad you like the story so far and I hope you liked this chapter too. And are there stories where Daryl really talks like that? Because that's horrible! I have no idea what that says! Translation please?  
ResidentGoth: Your boyfriend sounds like a keeper! :D And look at you being a proud big sister, bragging about your little brother on the internet! I love it! Haha. All I'm saying about Daryl is they not allowed to kill him off or make him cry. I will riot if that happens. I won't be able to deal with the feels and I will set something on fire. :p  
Gaby de Brabant: Hello! I'm so glad that you liked the last chapter and I hope that this one was just as good. Don't worry, even when things are happening between them Daryl's still going to have his moments of feeling stunned and uneasy because that's just who he is.  
And you reread the chapters? You are so sweet, lady. I might have to try to update twice a day every once in a while for you!  
Lady of Denial: I'm glad that you liked the last chapter! (Fingers crossed that you liked this one too) I had a lot of fun with the BIG things. And I'm now just hoping that I didn't jump the gun on this relationship step. I figure that almost twenty chapters is a good wait (although in story time they've known each other for like two weeks ... but hey, it's psychologically proven that your form deeper bonds with people when going through dangerous situations so that's my excuse). Thank you so much for your review!  
gypsykl79: She is pretty fierce, but she'd have to be to be a match for Daryl. :D Thank you for your review! I'm glad you liked the last chapter and I hope you liked this one as well!  
TheWalkingD3AD: Hello! Thank you so much for your review! I'm glad you love the story so far and I hope you liked this chapter too!  
ilovemypoptart: Well I got them to kiss! Does that work for you? :p Sex might happen soonish ... or laterish ... if I can figure out how to write it.  
wolfhappiness: Haha you guys got lucky with me posting every day. What happened was I started this story on a weekend when I had nothing to do and my boyfriend was out of town. So in the span of the first two days I'd written like four chapters, but only posted two of them. So it's kind of prewritten. I'm writing a chapter every day (split between before and after work as well as in a notebook when I have free time at work) but it's never the chapter I'm actually posting that day. I'm always about 3.5 chapters ahead of where you guys are.  
And you're more than welcome for the shoutout. I've always figured that if someone takes the time to review my story, then I should take the time to respond to it. Feels like a common courtesy I guess. And apparently a lot of my readers live in Georgia, I hope I'm doing your state justice. :D  
DancingUnderMoonlight18: I hope I didn't let you down, dear. You were so excited about today and I hope the chapter lived up to everything you hoped it would be. I'm glad that you liked the last chapter (especially the wink, I figure they need to have some normal flirting too. Their relationship can't be all about zombies.)  
At least I'm not alone with the Christmas music! And it snowed where you are? Lucky! What state do you live in so I can come visit and play in the snow. We're still waiting for our first snow where I am.  
Embers in the flames: I am so glad you found this story too! I get really excited when I get a new reader! And you're new to the fandom which makes it even better! (You started with the third to last episode? So you haven't watched season one and two? Go to tvlinks right now and watch them! They'll keep you busy for about a week and they're absolutely amazing!)  
And you're welcome! I want to thank you for saying it's good-quality and amazing! I mean, I've always thought it was good, but that's because I'm the one writing it. It always catches me by surprise to learn other people think that too.  
As far as Daryl's age goes... it's unspecified. They say early to mid thirties. In my story he's about thirty or thirty-one so that he's still in twenty-five year old Emerson's age range. Although I don't know if age ranges really exist after the end of the world...  
SilverAdvenger12: Thank you for your review dear! I hope that this chapter was as good as the other ones as well! (Little known secret: I love Daryl/Em too. If I didn't I would have killed her in this chapter. Just kidding!)  
FanFicGirl10: Hahaha. I'm glad you were excited for the next step and I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Let me know what you thought!  
And that's all I've got for now!  
I really hope that you guys liked this last chapter. Let me know!  
Until tomorrow, happy reading!  
Hugs and kisses,  
Chloe Jane.


	21. Chapter Twenty

Disclaimer: I do not own the Walking Dead, although I'm completely obsessed with it and wished I did. Emerson, however, I do own.

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Check out my tumblr: MissChloeJane.  
I post spoilers. :D

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Just as a heads up, I'm bored.  
So I'm running "open auditions" for Walker parts for upcoming chapters.  
So, if you want to be featured as a Walker in an upcoming chapter. Send me a brief description of yourself (either on tumblr or vis PM on this site)  
and tell me which character you want to "interact" with and how you'd like to die.  
And I might work it into the story.  
Yeah ... this is what happens when I get bored.

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Chapter Twenty:

The group had their work cut out for them that afternoon and Emerson and Daryl didn't have a chance to talk to each other about their kiss. The group had to move and burn all the bodies of the Walkers, they had to go to the woods surrounding the school and gather firewood and Rick wanted Daryl to hunt a bit. They also needed to syphon the gas out of the abandoned cars, but before that Rick wanted them moved off site. He didn't like the idea of all the cars sitting in the lot. So the group was divided into several teams. T-Dog, Hershel, and Beth were moving bodies. Daryl and Rick were hunting in the woods and collecting firewood. Emerson, Glenn, Maggie and Carol were on car duty. Emerson, Glenn, and Maggie were hot wiring the cars and driving them about thirty minutes away from the school where they would syphon off the gas and Carol would drive them back to Berry in one of the group's cars. The work was slow, Emerson had the feeling that they would still be moving cars over the next week. Rick finally gave them the go ahead to stop working as the sun began to set in the West.

He and Daryl had had some luck in the woods around the school. They had found enough wood to burn all of the Walker bodies and to have a fairly large fire going in the area of the field that had been cleared of cars. Lori had already cooked the meat and there was an air of celebration in the group as they sat down around the fire to eat their dinner.

"Good job everyone," Rick said as the group began to eat. "With the exception of a few close calls this afternoon I would say we're doing pretty well for ourselves." He looked around the field, half the cars had been moved, it wouldn't take long to move the others. "We'll move the rest of the cars over the next few days. Maybe a different location tomorrow. And we'll rest for a day or two, I think we've earned it. Then we'll tackle how we're going to get into the actual school. There's bound to be more Walkers in there than there were in the field." Emerson felt Daryl tense beside her and she reached out to give his hand a gentle squeeze as Rick continued to talk. "But I think this could be a good place for us," the man said with a nod. "I really do."

And then, once it was clear that Rick was done talking the group burst out with noise, everyone breaking off into their own conversations. Emerson glanced at Daryl, a nervous look on her face as she wondered when they were going to talk about their kiss. She wasn't sure if now would be the best time to talk about it, but she couldn't imagine acting normal for the rest of the night until they could talk about it. She was about to turn to Daryl and suggest that they take a walk, but at that moment Matt and Carl walked over to them and sat down. Matt threw himself into her lap, he had been nervous the entire time she was outside the gates moving cars and now he just wanted to make sure his older sister was okay. Carl sat next to Emerson, his body leaning against hers slightly, as if he too needed to touch her to make sure that she was okay. "What's up, guys?" Emerson asked, craning her neck so that she could press a kiss onto the top of Matt's head. "Just wanted to come see me?" she continued as she reached out and wrapped one of her arms around Carl's shoulder, pulling him closer to her. "Hmm?"

"It looked like you were going to die," Carl said softly as Matt nodded and buried his face in his sister's neck. "I was sure you were going to die. I wanted to shoot it, but you were in the way. I couldn't do it without hurting you. I was the reason you almost died." Daryl glanced at Carl, startled by the fact that the boy was voicing his exact thoughts from earlier that afternoon. "It was my fault," Carl continued.

"Oh no, sweetie," Emerson said, leaning over so that she could kiss Carl's forehead, for once the boy didn't pull away from her. He may have needed the gesture as much as Emerson did. "Don't think that way," Emerson continued once she had pulled away. "What happened down there wasn't your fault," she turned her head slightly to make eye contact with Daryl when she said that. The man hadn't talked about what had gone through his head when she was grabbed by the Walker, but she knew him well enough to assume that he was taking responsibility for what had happened to her. "That was my fault. I wasn't watching out for myself. It's my fault the Walker snuck up on me, my responsibility," she continued, her green eyes still locked on Daryl's blue ones. "This wasn't your fault." Carl sniffed and shook his head, the boy still didn't seem to believe her, but he didn't look as miserable anymore. "Besides," Emerson said, a smile spreading across her lips as she shifted her head so that she could force the thirteen year old to make eye contact with her. "Look at me, do I look like I was hurt? The Walker didn't get to me. I'm perfectly fine, right?"

"Yeah," Carl said with a nod. "But what if you weren't. What if something had happened to you?"

"Yeah Emmy?" Matt asked, lifting his face from his sister's neck so that he could look at her face. "What if something had happened to you? Who would take care of me? Who would love me if you weren't here?"

"I would," Daryl said gruffly. He couldn't stand the worried, scared look on the little boy's face. Of course Matt had been worried about Emerson, but at some point that day the boy had become aware of the fact that Emerson was all he had left. And that if she died he wouldn't belong to anyone. It was a hell of a burden on a kid that young and Daryl didn't want Matt to be worried about it. Emerson turned to look at Daryl, her eyes wide and surprised. She had always assumed that if something had happened to her Daryl would be the one to take care of Matt, but they had never talked about it so she had never been sure. He nodded at her before looking back at Matt. "If somethin' happened to yer sister I would take care of ya. Just like if somethin' happened to ya I would take car of her. That's what family does."

"We're family?" Matt asked, surprise and confusion coloring his tone.

"We all are," Carl said, his own tone certain. "The entire group. Or that's what my dad says. And family takes care of each other. No matter what."

Matt glanced up at Emerson, silently asking his sister if what Carl and Daryl were telling him was true. Emerson nodded and smiled at him as she reached out to grab Daryl's hand and give it a gentle squeeze. "Of course we all are," she said before nuzzling her nose into her brother's hair and offering to read Harry Potter to the boys before they put the fire out for the night.

After dinner the group stayed by the fire for a bit longer, mostly listening to Emerson read from the Harry Potter book to the kids. And then Lori and Emerson put the two boys to bed. Daryl waited outside the SUV and listened to Emerson sing Matt's lullaby to him three times before her little brother finally fell asleep. It seemed that her little brother was very concerned that once he fell asleep his sister was going to run around doing dangerous things and probably get attacked by a Walker. Emerson looked completely exhausted when she finally climbed out of the back of the SUV. Daryl had figured that they should talk about what had happened earlier, he didn't exactly want to talk about it, but he knew that he couldn't handle the awkward silences that hung in the air whenever he and Emerson had been left alone that evening. But when he saw the tired look on her face he figured that they could wait one more night before they had the discussion. "Ya should get some rest," he said, nodding toward the passenger seat. "Ya've had a long day."

Emerson glanced past him toward the gate on the far side of the car lot. She couldn't see the Walkers that were waiting by the gate, but if she listened closely she could hear them over the hushed conversations by the fire and the wind. She shook her head, "I'm not tired enough to sleep yet," she said, "at least not knowing that they're over there, just waiting for their chance to get to us."

"The gate will hold," Daryl said, his tone sure and certain. "If it couldn' they would've broke through it today while ya were in here killing the Walkers." Emerson shot him a look that clearly said he wasn't being very reassuring. Daryl tried again, "This is a lot of fear comin' from a girl who volunteered to drop, injured, into a pit of Walkers earlier today."

Emerson shrugged, "It's different when you can see them," she said softly. "I don't like thinking they can see me but I can't see them." She turned back to look at Daryl, "I could use a walk," she said, nodding away from the group and the fire. "Want to come with me?"

"Might as well," Daryl said with a shrug. "Knowin' ya and the trouble ya get into, yer more than likely to end up a Walker's meal if I don' come with ya." Emerson flinched at the memory of that afternoon and how close she had come to becoming a Walker's meal for real. Daryl instantly sobered, "Shouldn' have said that," he said, his tone gruff as the two began to walk away from the SUV. "It was my fault," Daryl admitted once they had been walking for about a minute.

"It was your fault that the Walker died with an empty stomach?" Emerson asked, raising her eyebrows at the man walking next to her. "I'd say that's a good thing if you ask me. I'm not sure why you sound so sad. I was thankful he didn't get a meal, personally."

"It's my fault ya almost were a last meal," Daryl clarified. "I was so amazed after ya killed those three geeks, I didn' have yer back like I should've. An' then, when it had ya in its grasp, I couldn't do anythin'. All I could think about was what I would do if ya were bit. I was too worried about that to notice ya hadn' been bit yet. It was my fault."

"Oh hush," Emerson said, turning around so that she could face him. She lifted oner of her hands so that she could cup Daryl's face in her hand. "None of that was your fault. Shit happens, and when Walkers are involved there is no way to be one hundred per cent safe."

"If ya had been in a car, ya would've been safe," Daryl muttered, lifting his own hand so that he could lay it over Emerson's which was still cupping his cheek. "I shoulda forced ya to stay in the car, ya were injured. No one would have told ya that ya couldn' sit this one out."

"But would I have been happy?" Emerson asked him softly. She shook her head, silently answering her own question.

Daryl sighed, didn't the girl realize that he would much rather her be unhappy and safe than running around risking her life but smiling while she did it? Didn't she realize that if he had it his way she'd be locked in a room all by herself with meals brought to her three times a day and no interaction with the outside world - that was the only way he could think of making sure that she'd have no interaction with the Walkers. He shook his head, "But ya'd be safe. Which is much more important to me," he said before he turned his face into Emerson's hand and pressed a kiss onto the pad of her thumb. He had been pretty good since their afternoon kiss, all he had wanted to do was kiss her again, but he had forced himself not to attack her lips without first talking to her about what they were.

Emerson's breath caught in her throat when she felt Daryl's lips brush against her skin, even if it was just her thumb. "So you don't want me to be happy?" she asked. "Ever?"

Daryl's lips quirked up at that, he had a feeling he knew what she was hinting at. "I want both," he said, "but if given the choice between safe and happy I'd choose safe."

Emerson nodded as she moved closer to him, her eyes careful. "I'm happy with you," she said softly. She pulled their hands off of Daryl's cheek, but instead of dropping his hand she took a deep breath and then laced her fingers through Daryl's. They had never held hands before. There had been moments when one of them grasped the other's hand to help them up, or they squeezed each other's hand to offer comfort. But they had never done this, they had never interlocked their fingers and held hands. Emerson took another deep breath before she lifted her eyes off of their interlocked hands and looked at Daryl, gauging his reaction. He was still staring down at their hands, but he nodded to let her know that it was okay. She smiled up at him and took a step closer to him. "I'm safe with you too," she whispered. Daryl raised his eyebrows and shrugged, after the Walker that afternoon he wasn't so sure about that. "No," Emerson said, shaking her head. "I am. You keep me safe. You've saved my life several times now."

Daryl nodded again, he had saved her life today, even if it was his fault that she was in the position to need saving in the first place. He lifted his eyes off of their hands and looked at Emerson's face instead, studying her. "So I make ya happy and safe," he said slowly, he couldn't help but think that at the end of the world with limited human beings this shouldn't be as hard as it felt. It should have been fairly easy actually, but he couldn't seem to find the right words. "Now what?" was what he finally settled for.

Emerson's lips twitched into a smile at that. "Now nothing really," she said with a sigh. "Nothing has to change if you don't want it to. We can keep going like we were before. We can stay friends, I'll keep saving your life, you'll keep returning the favor. Or ..." her voice dropped off there as if she too had no idea how to say what she wanted. It occurred to Daryl that this might be just as hard for Emerson as it had been for him. After all she had been through with Darren's group it might be hard for her to imagine having an actual relationship with someone.

"Or?" he asked, repeating her last word. He knew what he wanted, might have even known how to say it now, but he didn't want to scare her. He wanted to know what Emerson wanted, if she just wanted to stay friends with him that's what he'd do, but he refused to tell her that he wanted anything more and risk completely terrifying her until he knew what she wanted. She looked away from him, uncomfortable. "Or what, Em?" he asked her again.

"Or we could try this," Emerson said with a shrug. "Try to be together? Like Maggie and Glenn? We could try that." Daryl smiled at her. Emerson was usually so eloquent, but she was having trouble with this. He asked her what she wanted. Emerson looked away from him again and he thought that she was about to tell him that she wanted to just be friends when she turned back to him and stood on her tip toes, surging forward so that she could press her lips against his in a hard kiss. "We could try," she said, as she pulled away. She laughed when Daryl and his lips followed her movement. She kissed him again, this one deeper and longer before she pulled away again, "But if it gets weird?"

"We'll go back to bein' friends," Daryl assured as he wrapped his arms around the girl's small body and pulled her closer to him.

"Best friends?" Emerson asked him softly, smiling as she quoted her brother.

Daryl stared at her for a moment before he threw his head back and laughed, deep and long. "Best friends," he agreed before lowering his lips back onto Emerson's.

Being with Emerson Phillips was a lot easier than Daryl had anticipated. They had kissed a bit more before she had pulled away from him and began to walk back to the group around the fire. When Daryl had caught up to her she had smiled at him softly and grabbed his arm, waiting patiently for him to relax, she was getting used to the fact that he tensed up every time she touched him, but if given time he would relax into her touch. Once he had relaxed she slipped his arm over her shoulders and cuddled into his side. They walked like that until they reached the fire. When they got there Daryl took his arm back but Emerson didn't look upset. She nodded at him, silently telling him that she understood and then sat down on the ground. As Daryl sat down next to her he couldn't help but notice all the knowing and approving looks on everyone's faces. He didn't know this, but as far as the group was concerned he and Emerson were a long time coming.

The group stayed by the fire for another hour before they all separated to go to their separate cars. Daryl surprised Emerson by reaching out to grab her hand on their way to the SUV and instead of fooling themselves by climbing into two separate seats Daryl climbed into the passenger seat and pulled Emerson on top of his lap at the very beginning. Emerson smiled at him and grabbed a blanket from the floor in the back as Daryl set the seat back and she pressed one soft goodnight kiss onto his lips before she settled against his chest and closed her eyes for the night.

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The next morning Emerson decided to take it upon herself to explain to Matt what was going on with her and Daryl. After breakfast she took Matt on a walk around the car lot under the pretense of making sure that the Walkers hadn't gotten so persistent during the night that they had started to break through the wall. And once they were far enough away from the group that they wouldn't be overheard she turned to look at her younger brother, "So," she said softly, trying to figure out the best way to explain this to her brother. "I guess I should tell you that something has changed between me and Daryl. But if you're not okay with it, we'll stop. Don't worry about that. If it doesn't make you happy we'll stop, because your happiness is important to me Matt, it really is. So just let me know if you don't like this, just let me know and I'll take care of it."

She had more to say she supposed, she could have kept babbling on for an hour if the little boy had let her. But he didn't, he looked up at her with a smile on his face and interrupted her, "Is Daryl your boyfriend now?" he asked her. Emerson reached down and grabbed her brother's hand, she gave it a gentle squeeze and nodded. The boy looked at her for a moment before he nodded. "That's fine with me," he said. "But why?"

"Why what?" Emerson asked, confused. "Why would he want to date me?"

Matt nodded. "You have cooties," he said, his tone serious. "And he's your best friend. I don't want to date Carl. Why would Daryl want to date his best friend?"

Emerson laughed out loud and dropped down to her knees so that she could hug her brother. "You're so innocent," she said, laughter still in her voice as she leaned forward so that she could pepper kisses all over her brother's face. "It's a bit different," she said softly trying to find the right way to explain things to Matt without having to give her little brother the sex talk. "It's different when your best friend is a girl. Things change a bit. And I thought we decided in the car that with the Walkers cooties don't really matter anymore. Besides, I'm an adult, don't cooties disappear at some point?"

"I guess so," Matt said with a nod. "Mom doesn't have cooties so at some point they must go away."

Emerson flinched at the mention of their mother, she knew that she had to have the talk with Matt soon. She sighed, "Matt buddy," she said softly. "I think we need to have a talk about Mom and Dad."

"No Emmy," Matt said, shaking his head. "It's okay. I know you don't want to go check on them back at the house. I know you think it's too dangerous. So I've decided something." Emerson raised her eyebrows in surprise and asked Matt what he had decided. "I'm gonna go by myself," Matt said with a determined nod. "I'm going to go today. I'll take Lou. We'll be back by tomorrow." And then he kissed her on the cheek and walked away.

"Matt!" Emerson called out to her brother, but he didn't turn around, his mind had been made up. "Matt wait!"

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Author's Note:  
Hello all. There was general mush and fluff in this chapter.  
But I hope you liked it. I'm setting it up for some fun in the next few chapters that I'm really excited about.  
What do you guys think? Did you love it? Hate it? Let me know! (though if you hated it try to be nice when you tell me.)  
Anyway, thank you for stopping by to read! And as always special thanks goes to:_ Alice Colelynn, ElissFangirl1234, Mrs. Kyle Hobbes, Nightingale'sLullaby, NyanTehCat, QueenofSiam101, Saileach, Xsilent-spirit-X_, and _cherrytan _who added this story to their favorites list. And to: _Alice Colelynn, ElissFangirl1234, Nightingale'sLullaby, NyanTehCat, Xsilent-spirit-X_, and_ c0rinne _who added this story to their alerts list.  
But of course the **biggest** of all special thanks goes to those who **reviewed** on the last chapter!  
Cindy V: Aww darling, you're going to make me blush! I'm so glad that you think this story is well written and that the plot and characters are interesting and developed. (I still get surprised whenever someone thinks that.) Thank you so much for your review and I hope you liked this chapter as well.  
Your Favorite Freak: I tricked you? Yes! When I posted the spoiler on my tumblr someone told me I was stressing them out but they knew I couldn't kill Emerson. And I was like, _How do you know that I'm not ending the story on chapter nineteen?_ But I couldn't do that, I love Em and Daryl too much for that. And they finally kissed! Took them long enough, right? You read the note? I think you're the only one who did. :D  
JDMlvr1: See, there's a lot of people that **almost** believed Emerson was going to die. Maybe I should have actually killed her just to watch everyone's reactions. Just kidding, there's no feasible way to bring her back after that. And it would be a complete Mary Sue move to make her immune to Walker bites. So I had to keep her alive. I'm glad that you enjoyed the kiss and the chapter and I hope that you enjoyed this one as well. See you tomorrow!  
IamNotWalkerBait: You sure caught up quick. You were reviewing on chapter six the day before yesterday and look at you now! I'm glad you liked the last chapter. And since there are stories out there I'm kind of glad I try not to read WD fics at the moment. I would not be able to handle writing like that. (And as a southerner if they're just cutting off half of words to make him sound that way ... they're from the north. We don't actually sound that way.) Thank you for the translation, by the way. :D  
gypsykl79: Yeah, Em's going to stress Daryl out quite a bit by the end of the story. :D I'm glad that you liked the last chapter and I hope that you liked this one too! Thanks for the review!  
wolfhappiness: Haha! Well you got more kissing. And there will be more in future chapters so you're welcome. :D I'm glad that you could picture the Walkers going down. I've been so worried about writing Walker fight scenes because ... well I've never fought a Walker (or anything really besides the occasional self defense class in college) so I don't know what's accurate. But I figure you can't really write a WD fic without fighting Walkers so I've had to try. And I felt bad for Daryl as I was writing this chapter. I was writing the part about Em getting grabbed and I was thinking, _I'm sorry Daryl, honey, I'm so sorry for doing this to you_. But I had to. I hope that you liked this chapter as well!  
DancingUnderMoonlight18: I'm glad that you loved the last chapter! I was honestly worried about letting people down. So I'm really glad that you guys liked that chapter so much! Yeah, more Matt. Sometimes I run things by my brother Holden (he's around Matt's age) just to see how he would react. I asked him how he'd react to watching me kiss someone and he started gagging. But then he told me that he'd want me to date the guy if that made me happy so that's where Matt's talk came from in this chapter. I used to live in Pennsylvania! My dad is in the Army so I called home wherever the Army sent him, which for a while was Pennsylvania. The Carlisle post, if you know where that is. Anyway, I hope you liked this chapter as well and I will see you back here tomorrow!  
xzcarlyzx: SUCCESS! ACHIEVEMENT! Was it when I almost killed her or was it when they kissed? I'm glad you liked the chapter!  
MagicalElf73: That's how I saw it. I'm like, Daryl Dixon knows how to do girls. But he doesn't know how to do feelings. It would take something big for him to finally face those feelings and do something about them. :D  
0netflixme0: I know, that's how I felt when I posted the chapter. I was talking to the Daryl and Emerson in my head and I was like, "Took you guys long enough." And don't worry, I love the story too so I'll definitely keep writing.  
FanFicGirl10: I couldn't kill her. It's too early in the story for that just yet. :p. I'm glad that you loved the chapter and I hope that you liked this one as well. Thank you for your review.  
Lady of Denial: Thank you. I'm so glad that you enjoyed the last chapter and I hope that you enjoyed this chapter as well (even if it was mostly fluff.) How about we make a deal? You keep reading and I'll keep trying to post awesome chapters. Deal?  
SilverAdvenger12: I'm so glad that you liked the last chapter! I figured that if they were finally going to kiss there might as well be a high stress moment before that. And I'm glad that you enjoyed the kiss! I hope you liked this chapter as well.  
Embers in the flames: Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday dear reader! Happy birthday to you! I hope that I got this chapter out so that you could read it before your birthday celebrations! And I hope that you enjoyed the chapter!  
I'm so glad that you loved the last one. I like that! And I'm glad that you brought up the interaction between Glenn and Emerson because that was exactly what that was supposed to show!  
Oh Lori is unfair to Shane. Wait until you get to season two. I kind of liked Shane and I really didn't like what she did to him. Did you LOVE the episode at the CDC? I loved that one so much. It was so good! (And of course I appreciate a long rant! They make me really happy actually.)  
TheWalkingD3AD: Hello dear! I'm so glad that you liked the last chapter and I hope that you like this one too! Thank you so much for your review!  
Gaby de Brabant: I'm really glad that you enjoyed the last chapter! I'm so happy that I wrote the action scenes well enough that people could actually picture them! That is a beyond HUGE compliment for me, so thank you! And yeah, Em's kind of a badass, she would have to be to catch Daryl's eye though (and not to mention his heart). You did get some more kissing in this chapter so is that good? I hope that you enjoyed it!  
Ravennn: "best. kiss. ever."! I squealed out loud when I read that. Thank you! You spoil me with your review! I'm glad that you liked the last chapter and I hope that you liked this one too!  
Phew that was a lot of reviews. **Keep it up**. I love it. Took me an hour and almost 1200 words to respond to them all.  
Which is great!  
That's all I've got for now.  
So until tomorrow, happy reading.  
Hugs and kisses,  
Chloe Jane.


	22. Chapter Twenty-One

Disclaimer: I do not own the Walking Dead, although I'm completely obsessed with it and wished I did. Emerson, however, I do own.

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Check out my tumblr: MissChloeJane.  
I post spoilers. :D

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Can I just have a moment to share with you guys how much I liked last night's episode.  
Like what's with the governor? I'm so confused! Is he like the comic one? Could I read the comic books and know what he's up to?  
And insert a girly squeal here for Daryl in last night's episode. Him and the baby!  
They're adorable. I love them. And they may have made my gruffly sweet Daryl in story cannon! Which is great!  
Squeal again... just because.

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and one more time ... because Daryl and Little Ass Kicker!

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Chapter Twenty-One:

She couldn't convince Matt not to go to their house. That much was fairly clear to Emerson within a few minutes. She had chased him back to the SUV to see that he had stockpiled some food and weapons for himself and even stolen the map from the glove compartment so that he would be able to find his way there and back. She tried to talk the eight year old out of it, tried to tell him that once they had gotten settled in the school they would go to their house together, but Matt shook his head. He told her that he couldn't leave their parents stranded at the house any longer. "I'm going today," he said, his tone and face determined. "Either you come with me now or I go by myself. But I'm going Emmy. Mom and Dad need us."

Emerson considered telling him that their parents were dead, that they had never gone to New Mexico for Nana, but she knew that he wouldn't believe her. She had perpetuated the lie about them being alive and in New Mexico for too long to change her story now. He'd just think that she was saying it so that he'd stay with the group. She sighed, her breath blew her bangs out of her eyes, she was usually so proud of Matt for his stubborn, determined nature. It was something she liked to think he had learned from her, but at this moment she hated it. It had created a no win situation for her. "Okay," she said softly with a nod. "We'll go this afternoon." She looked around the lot and pointed to a car she had seen the day before that had a full tank of gas. "Put your supplies in that car. You'll help me move cars for a while. And then right before lunch we'll get in that one, but instead of dropping it off at the drop site we'll drive it back to town okay?"

Matt grinned up at her, happy that she had agreed to go with him. "Thanks Em," he cheered excitedly before he threw his arms around her and hugged her tightly around her waist.

"Don't thank me just yet," Emerson said softly as she hugged him back. "And do me a favor, let's keep our little trip a secret from the rest of the group okay?" Matt glanced up at her, his chin resting on her stomach, and asked her why she wanted to keep it a secret. "Don't you want to surprise them when we get back with Mom and Dad?" Emerson asked, trying to keep her tone light, to keep it a game. The truth was she didn't want to risk Daryl finding out that they were going to leave, even if only for a little bit. He would never let her go, she knew that much for certain. Matt bought her excuse though and agreed to keep it a secret before he ran off to play with Carl.

Emerson watched her brother run off, she was aware that sooner rather than later she was going to have to take some of that happiness away from him. At the time it had seemed like lying about their parents was the right thing to do, but it had gone on for too long now. And it didn't seem like the right thing anymore. She hadn't realized that Daryl had snuck up on her until she felt him rest his hand on her shoulder, "What's he so happy about?" Daryl asked, watching Matt too. The boy was usually happy, but he seemed abnormally happy that day, like he had just heard some very good news. "It's just me," Daryl added when Emerson jumped under his hand at the sound of his voice.

Emerson turned around to face him and shrugged, "I think he's just happy that Rick doesn't have us taking over the school today," she said. "The Walker that attacked me yesterday really scared him. He came over and asked me if I was going to have to go fight the Walkers on the other side of the fence today. But I told him today I was just moving cars. He liked that." She didn't like lying to Daryl anymore than she liked lying to Matt. And she knew that he was going to be pissed at her when he found out what she had planned, but she couldn't back down now.

Daryl looked at her, his blue eyes ghosting over her face. Emerson was a lousy liar, Daryl decided. He didn't know what was up with her, but he knew the excuse she had just given him was bullshit. He shrugged, she wasn't going to tell him what was up and he wasn't going to force her to. But he was going to keep an extra close watch on her and her brother throughout the day to see if he could figure out what was going on. "I think we're all happy about that," he said instead. He tensed when he saw Emerson's sigh of relief, another sign that she had been lying to him. But he was a better liar than she was, she didn't know he didn't buy her story. "What were ya guys talkin' about on yer walk?" he asked, changing the subject.

"I told him about us," Emerson said with a soft smile. "I told him that if he didn't like it you and I would end it." Daryl raised his eyebrows, silently asking her if she was about to end her relationship with him. She grinned up at him and reached for his hand, "He said that was fine. But he wanted to know why you wanted to date your best friend. His exact words were, _I don't want to date Carl_,"

Daryl's lips twitched into a smile at that. "Well," he said, leaning closer so that he could whisper in Emerson's ear. "Carl doesn' look like ya do. I wouldn' want to date 'im either."

"Stop," Emerson laughed, reaching up to hit him gently on the chest before she began to walk away from him. "Come on," she said, "I heard that Rick planned to have all the cars moved off this lot by tonight. We better get going."

"Nah," Daryl said, shaking his head and tapping his crossbow. "Not me. He's got me huntin' again. Ya said there were deer inside the grounds, but we don' know if the geeks have gotten 'em. So he wants me to get as much meat as I can." Emerson forced her lips into a pout, she had been hoping to spend the morning with Daryl before she and Matt left on their adventure, but this would make leaving a little easier. "Now don' do that," Daryl muttered, lifting his hand to her face and stroking the pout away from her lips. "Yer face will get stuck that way," he joked before he got serious. "I'll be back by lunch," he said with a nod, "an' I'll be stayin' within radio range," he pointed at the walkie-talkie attached to his pants and gave Emerson a pointed look that she didn't quite understand. "So if ya need anythin' let me know."

"We'll be fine," Emerson said with a smile, "don't worry about us." She looked around to make sure that no one was looking before she stood on her tip toes and kissed Daryl on the cheek. She smiled when he only flinched for a second at the contact. "Don't come back until you've bagged a deer," she whispered in his ear, repeating what she had told Matt the time Daryl took him hunting, before she pulled away with a smile on her lips.

-.-.-.-.-

Emerson waited until Daryl had been gone for almost three hours before she decided that it was time for her and Matt to go. She had been moving cars for the last two hours and she finally felt as though she had a handle on what was going on. Rick and T-Dog were keeping watch on the wall - they were watching both the Walkers beyond the wall separating the car lot from the school grounds and on any Walkers approaching the school. But based on their slow march and easy going nature Emerson assumed it was a quiet day. That was good, gave her less to worry about now that she and Matt would be going out on their own. Emerson figured that it was a good thing that Rick and T-Dog were keeping watch. That left Carol, Glenn, Maggie, and Emerson to move the cars while Hershel manned the gate. She liked Carol, Glenn, and Maggie and she was sure that they liked her too, but with this group it was less likely that they would chase after her and Matt when they left than if Rick or T-Dog were out there with her. She couldn't have planned this any better if she had tried.

She climbed out of Carol's car and whistled on long, shrill note. When Glenn looked at her with raised eyebrows she shrugged, "Ever just felt the need to whistle?" she asked him. Glenn must have believed that was a reasonable explanation because he didn't ask her anything about her behavior. The whistle had been the signal that she and Matt had decided that she would use when it was time to go. Matt had been playing Battleship with Carl in the field, they had taken the board game with them when they left the farmhouse, but as Emerson, Maggie, and Glenn picked out new cars to drive off the lot he said goodbye to Carl with a smile on his face before he ran over to Emerson, loudly asking her if he could help her move a car or two. Emerson sighed as if her brother was a nuisance, "I suppose you can," she said, lifting her gaze to return Maggie's smile at her brother's behavior. She opened the passenger door to the car they had packed with their supplies and allowed Matt to climb in. "Stay Lou!" she commanded when the dog tried to climb in after the little boy. The dog whimpered but obeyed her command as Emerson got into the driver's seat and started the car.

"Why can't Lou come with us?" Matt asked, turning in his seat so he could wave at the heartbroken dog through the back window.

"He'll be happier here than stuck in the car," Emerson lied as she followed the rest of the cars out of the car lot. The truth was that she would rather take Lou, the dog made her feel safer. But she felt bad about leaving the group without letting them know that she wouldn't be there to help fight off a Walker attack, Lou was good about alerting people to Walkers and fighting them off. He could help them. Besides, she figured that when Daryl found out that they had left, but didn't take the dog he would know that they planned on coming back. Lou was as much a part of her family as Matt was now and if they were going to leave the group for good she would definitely take the dog.

"He doesn't look very happy," Matt replied, a pout coloring his tone.

"We won't have room for him in the car once we pick up Mom, Dad, and Nana," Emerson explained, trying a different tactic as she followed Glenn, Carol, and Maggie's cars down an abandoned back road. "We're not in the SUV anymore, this car is smaller." She wasn't sure why she couldn't simply come right out and tell Matt why they didn't take the dog. That maybe, just maybe, Daryl would be less upset at her if he knew that she was coming back. She was embarrassed to admit, even to her eight-year-old brother that she cared about what Daryl thought. She glanced at her brother through the corner of her eye to see if he bought her explanation. The boy seemed to like it.

"That's true," Matt said with a nod. "You're smart Emmy, you think about these things a lot, huh?" Before Emerson could answer his question the young boy was off on a different topic. "Do you think Nana and Hershel will like each other?" he asked.

"I'm sure everyone will like Nana," Emerson answered, a sad smile spreading across her lips. Their nana had been an amazing woman. She was smart, beautiful, strong, kind, brave - everything Emerson had ever wanted to be. She had never met anyone who didn't like Nana. "Are you worried that she won't have any friends in the group?" Emerson asked her brother. "No," Matt said, shaking his head earnestly. "I mean like you like Daryl? Do you think Hershel will like Nana the way Daryl likes you? Hershel and Nana are both old. Hershel's hair is gray and Nana's would be if she stopped dying it blue." That caused Emerson to laugh, her nana was very fond of powder blue hair dye. "I think Hershel's lonely now that both his wives have died," Matt continued. "Papa died. Hershel and Nana could talk about that and become best friends like you and Daryl, not like me and Carl. And then they could get married."

Emerson turned her head toward her brother and smiled at him and his childish innocence for a moment before she turned back to the road. "Let's get Nana to the group and maybe introduce her to Hershel before you start planning their life together, huh buddy?" she asked, suddenly blinking tears out of her eyes. Her brother was so innocent, so hopeful and sweet and she was going to ruin that. Daryl had said that being with the group would make Matt harder, but he had been wrong. The group wouldn't make Matt hard, but finding out that his sister had been lying to him and that his parents were dead - that would make him hard.

She took a deep steadying breath as the three drivers in front of her stopped their cars on the side of the road and they got out to begin syphoning off the gas. This was it, "Here goes nothing," Emerson whispered to Matt as she sped up and drove past their friends without making eye contact. She didn't realize that she had been holding her breath until they were at least ten yards away and she let it all out in a big huff.

Carol watched as Emerson and Matt drove down the road and out of sight around the bend. She couldn't be sure, but she had a pretty good idea as to where they were going. She got on the walkie-talkie and over Maggie and Glenn's confused voices spoke to Rick back at the school. "Rick," she said, her voice calm. "We have a problem. We're coming back now."

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"What's the problem?" Daryl asked thirty minutes later when he arrived back at the school. He had been within range when Carol came on the radio and said that there was a problem. He had worried briefly about Emerson, she had been with Carol moving cars, but he was sure that if Emerson was in trouble Carol would have said something over the radio. Maybe the group had spotted some Walkers or other people and the group just needed to lay low for a while. He had already killed three deer, several raccoons, rabbits, and squirrels. He was looking forward to a reward from Emerson once he got back to the car lot. She had told him to bag one deer and he had gotten three. But once he got back to the group he couldn't find her. Or Matt for that matter. "Where's Em and Matt?" he asked as he dropped the smaller animals on the ground and looked around the group again, hoping that Emerson and Matt would pop out at him and yell _Surprise!_

But they didn't, in fact, no one in the group said anything. Daryl looked around the group, at the stern look on Rick's face, the tense worried looks on Lori and Carol's faces, Glenn's guilty look and inability to meet his eye and it all made sense. "No," Daryl groaned, dropping the deer onto the ground too before he fell into a sitting position on the grass. "What happened? Were they bit? Where are their bodies? Were they eaten alive or did they die? Did ya kill 'em and burn 'em already? I didn' get to say goodbye. No!" He didn't realize that there were tears in his eyes until he saw the way T-Dog was avoiding his gaze, an uncomfortable look on his face. Daryl stood up again, wiping furiously at his eyes for a moment before he lunged at Glenn, grabbing a fistful of the boy's shirt and lifting him off the ground. "She was with ya!" he growled, ignoring Maggie who was yelling at him to put Glenn down. "They both had to be! Yer only job was to take care of 'er. An' ya couldn' do that! What happened to 'em? Where were ya? Why are ya still here when she's gone?"

"There was nothing I could do!" Glenn defended as his hands scrambled around Daryl's, trying to find a way to pry himself out of the angry man's grasp. "She was in her car and instead of stopping with the rest of us she just kept driving!"

"There you stupid redneck!" Maggie yelled at Daryl as she pushed against Daryl's body, finally able to get Glenn out of his grasp. "Glenn didn't do anything that killed Emerson. She's not even dead, that we know of. She and Matt took the car they were driving off the car lot and they kept driving on the road toward town. Short of shooting out her tires and probably killing her and the boy there was nothing any of us could have done."

It took a moment for everything to register with Daryl. Emerson and Matt weren't dead? They had just left the group? He glanced at Carol, silently asking her if what Glenn and Maggie were saying was true, had they really just left? Carol nodded, "Maggie's right, Daryl," the woman said, her voice soft and soothing. "She had been acting perfectly normal all morning and then Matt asked her if he could help her move a car. She said yes, but they just kept going. Rick says all of her knives are missing and one of the hand guns and a silencer too. They left."

Daryl shook his head, Emerson wouldn't have just left without saying goodbye to him. Everything had been going so well. They were together, they finally had some sort of idea of how the other felt for them. Unless she had been lying to him that morning when she told him that everything was fine she wouldn't have just left. Not without him. Unless she had felt that the group needed him more than she and Matt needed him. They both knew that Daryl would never let her leave the group without him. Had she left without telling him for the good of the group? "But why would she just leave?" Daryl asked out loud, hoping someone else would have the answer to his question. "She wouldn' go. She knows we need her and that they need us. They wouldn' just leave."

"They left Lou," Carl spoke up from the back of the group where he and Beth had been trying to console the distraught dog. "I don't think they're gone for good, they would have taken Lou if they were leaving forever."

And for a split second Daryl allowed himself to be hopeful. Carl was right, Matt and Emerson loved that dog and they wouldn't have left him with the group unless they were planning on coming back. But that still didn't answer his question about where they had gone and why? But the more he thought about it the clearer it became. He remembered Matt's demand that they go to the house to see if their parents were there. And when they were driving through town Matt had pointed out the road their house was on. They had left Lou because they planned on coming back. "God dammit," Daryl growled, grabbing the crossbow he had dropped on the ground when he grabbed Glenn. "She took him to their house. What kind of car did they drive? I have to go after them."

Rick surprised him, the man didn't argue with him. He seemed to understand just how important this was to Daryl. "A black jeep," he said instead. "Good luck." But it was too late. Daryl had already headed toward one of the group's cars so that he could go after his girl and her brother.

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They made it safely back to Glenwood and Emerson was surprised to see that their neighborhood was relatively quiet. There were a few Walkers wandering around, but none of them had really noticed the jeep. They pulled up in front of their house and for a moment Emerson was able to believe that everything was normal. The house looked the same, nothing seemed to have changed, sure there was some trash on the front yard and the grass needed to be cut, but she could almost imagine that inside the house her parents were waiting for her. She was about to tell Matt to wait a minute, to let her check out the house and make sure it was safe but her brother had already left the car. "Matt!" she yelled as her brother ran toward the front door, "Wait!"

She needn't have worried about her brother walking into the house without her because he stopped on the front walk, a yard or two away from the front porch. He was staring down at something on the ground, something that was hidden from Emerson's view by the tall, uncut grass. "What are you looking at buddy?" she asked him as she moved closer to him. When her younger brother looked up at her with tears in his eyes she knew. "Oh shit," she whispered before she ran over to her brother. She hadn't even thought about this, she had figured something would have eaten them by now or that they would have decomposed. But they already had and what creature, animal or Walker alike, would eat a Walker body. "Matt don't look at it," she said as she finally reached her younger brother and yanked him closer to her body, burying his face in her stomach so that he wouldn't have to look anymore.

She looked down on the lawn in front of her and there in the grass were the bodies of their parents. She had assumed that when a Walker was put down their skin would start to decompose like a normal persons, that after a certain time the skin and hair would disappear and they would just become a skeleton. But those were her parents, those were their faces. They looked the same as they had when Emerson had last seen them, she could even make out the bullet wounds in their foreheads from when her neighbor had shot them in the head. "It's okay, baby," she whispered as she closed her eyes and lowered her head so that she could kiss Matt's hair. "I'm so sorry, Matty," she whispered. "I'm so sorry."

They cried like that for a good hour. Matt kept his face pressed against Emerson's stomach as she looked around them, keeping an eye out for any Walkers that might have noticed them. But the neighborhood was completely quiet. It was eerie. "We were too late!" Matt whimpered, finally speaking. "They were waiting for us, but we were too late. They're dead Emmy, and we were too late." He pulled away from her and looked at the house, a wild look in his eyes. "Nana! Nana might still be in the house! That's Mom and Dad but I don't see Nana! What if she's still safe in the house?"

Emerson could have let Matt keep believing that their parents had been alive. She could have brought him into the house and looked for their Nana. But she couldn't do it anymore, she couldn't lie anymore. "No Matty," she said softly, pulling him over to the front steps so that they could sit down in the early evening light. "Nana isn't in the house. Nana isn't here." Matt shook his head and told her that Nana had to be there somewhere. "She's not Matt," Emerson said, shaking her head. "Mom and Dad never went to New Mexico to get her. I lied to you. When I came back home to look for Mom and Dad there was no note, they hadn't gone to New Mexico to get Nana. They hadn't gone anywhere."

"I don't understand," Matt said, tears still sliding down his cheeks, as he shook his head and tried to wrap his head around what his sister was saying. Emerson cocked her head to the side, she almost thought she could hear a car driving down the road. Matt shook his head again, he still didn't understand. "Why would you lie to me, Emmy?"

Tears poured out of Emerson's eyes and she quickly lifted a hand so that she could brush some of the tears off her cheekbones. "Because they were Walkers, Matt," she sobbed. "They had already been bit. They were spooks and they tried to kill me, to eat me like you've seen Walkers do to other people."

Matt pulled away from her for a moment, a glare on his face. "Did you shoot them?" he asked, pointing to the bodies that had once been their parents on the ground. "There were bullet holes. Did you shoot Mom and Dad? Did you kill them?"

"No," Emerson said, shaking her head, "I didn't. Mr. Mannigan did. I didn't kill them, I couldn't kill them. I was going to let them kill me before I hurt them. But Mr. Mannigan couldn't let that happen. I had you to get back to. You were at the cabin all by yourself. I had to get back to you."

"Why did you lie to me?" Matt asked, his tone harsh and angry.

"I didn't want you to lose hope," Emerson sobbed, she tried to wrap her arms around her brother's shoulders but he wouldn't let her touch him. That made her sob even harder. "This world makes it so easy to lose hope, to grow up before it's time. I didn't want to take that hope and your childhood away from you. Mom and Dad wouldn't have wanted that. They wouldn't have wanted you to remember them this way. I tried to protect you from that."

"But you lied to me," Matt pointed out, his voice still angry. "Family doesn't lie to each other."

"I'm sorry Matt," Emerson whispered. Matt stood up and she tried to reach out and grab his hand, but he moved his hand away from her. "I'm so sorry, Matty," she whispered again. "I did it because I love you."

"I don't love you!" Matt yelled, "I hate you Emerson!" And then before Emerson could stand up from the front steps and grab him her younger brother took off running down the street.

Emerson started to follow him, but she hadn't gotten more than one or two yards before something jumped out of a car that was parked on the side of the road and grabbed her. She screamed, sure that she was going to die and so was Matt because there'd be no one to protect him. A hand clapped over her mouth and Daryl's voice sounded in her ear, "What are ya tryin' to do?" he growled. "Call every Walker in the neighborhood?"

He started to drag Emerson back toward her house and she fought against him. "We have to go find Matt!" she hissed at him angrily when he finally took his hand off her mouth. "He ran away. He found out that I lied to him and he told me he hated me and he ran away! We have to go find him!"

Daryl shook his head and dragged Emerson onto the front porch of the house. "It's almost dark. And ya won' be doin' the kid any favors by runnin' around the neighborhood screamin' his name. He's smart, he'll find a place to hide. We'll find 'im in the mornin'. Ya need to calm down. An' we need to hide, the neighborhood's quiet, but yer scream's bound to have caught some attention. How do we get into the house?"

Emerson had calmed down enough to know that Daryl was right. But that didn't mean that she liked what he had to say, or even liked him for saying it. She shot him a glare before she walked to the far side of the porch and pulled the spare key, that was taped under the seat of the rocking chair out. Daryl grabbed the key from her, he didn't understand why Emerson was mad at him, if anyone had the right to be mad it was him. She had just run away without telling him. What if something bad had happened to her?

He used the key to unlock the door and let them inside. He was amazed, he thought, as he turned around to lock the door. Emerson's dad had Walker proofed the house before he had been bit. "Yer dad was pretty smart," Daryl said with a nod to the boarded up windows. "Took me an' my brother a month to figure that trick out."

But Emerson was suddenly tense, a nervous look on her face as she looked around the front hallway. "The windows weren't like this the last time I was here," she whispered, shaking her head. "My dad didn't do this."

Daryl heard the floor creak behind him and saw Emerson's eyes widen in surprise, he sensed the person behind him before he saw him out of the corner of his eye and quickly spun around so that he was standing in front of Emerson, the small redhead sandwiched between him and the wall. "Well look what we have here," a voice crowed. "Get Jackson! Tell him someone broke into the house." The man turned to glare at Daryl, "You're going to wish you hadn't broken in here," he said, his voice and jaw stern.

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Author's Note:  
And should I leave it there for a week? Take a week off? Call it a midseason break?  
How much would you guys hate me if I did that? A lot?  
That could be fun.  
Anyway, I hope that you guys enjoyed this chapter. I know I did. If you did let me know.  
Special thanks goes to: _DBugMom_, _Leo Potter_, _Readergirl66_, and _cherrytan_ who added this story to their favorites list. And to: _ContraryMaryBee_, _DBugMom_, _Leo Potter_, _Readergirl66_, _RedtailHawk19_, and _theselightswillfade_ who added this story to their alerts list. (We've reached **one hundred** alerts guys! That's AMAZING!)  
But as always the **biggest** of special thanks goes to those who **reviewed** on the last chapter:  
isopt: Hello dear! I'm so glad that you liked the kiss in chapter nineteen! I hope you liked the last two chapters as well.  
Embers in the flames: You're more than welcome dear. I'm glad that you enjoyed the chapter. You got a golden snitch pocket watch? I'm so jealous of you right now! I hope that you liked this chapter and I'll see you back here soon!  
Ravennn: I'm glad you liked the fluff. In any type of fic there's a fine line between just enough fluff and too much. The problem with WD fics is that line is even smaller. The show is not made for much fluff, but I love happy fluffy moments. And yeah, Carl might be a bit to blame for Matt. He has been spending a lot of time with the older boy. I hope you liked this chapter! And thank you for your review!  
DBugMom: New reviewer! Hello! Have you made it to chapter twenty-one yet? I hope so. Thank you so much for your review and I hope that you still enjoy the story! Thanks again! (Just realized you had reviewed on chapter twenty ... obviously you've caught up.) I'm so glad that you're hooked and that you like the story so much. Your glowing review made me blush.  
wolfhappiness: Matt just keeps making trouble. :D And yeah, I'm kind of in love with my Daryl. The best thing is ... that after last night's episode my gruffly sweet Daryl is almost cannon! I'm so excited about that. As far as Emerson goes, she doesn't really know about Daryl's abusive background, but she's kind of guessed. He doesn't like being touched, he flinches when you do, I'm even trying to remember, but I think she's seen one of his scars, but never asked about it. She's smart, probably put it together, but they haven't talked about it yet.  
biancastefani: Yup, Matt's being kind of stupid. But he's eight so he really can't be blamed. People do stupid things at that age. You're more than welcome for the regular updates ... you gotta remember, I love this story and these characters as much as you guys do so it's really not work to get the chapters out each day. And don't worry if you haven't reviewed on the last few chapters. Thank you for this one, I'm glad the updates make you happy, and good luck with your course! Maybe I'll see you tomorrow with chapter twenty-two... unless I take my midseason break. :p  
MagicalElf73: Reality checks are hard on anyone. Poor Matt just wasn't ready for his yet. Thank you for your review and I hope that you liked this chapter as well!  
DancingUnderMoonlight18: Oh dear! You've made me blush again. I can't handle all the compliments. I blush and my hands flail around and I forget how to type. I get so surprised when people think I'm good at this. Yeah, Matt's growing up a bit. I'm not exactly a fan of it, but it's realistic, in a world like that, you can't really afford to be innocent for long. And you're better than me ... I couldn't tell you how to get to Carlisle and I lived there (though once you got on post I could tell you had to get anywhere.) It's weird, when people ask me where my home is I have to tell them the Army because as long as I can remember, I've never stayed in one place for longer than three years (until college that is). I'm kind of a gypsy. :p  
Gaby de Brabant: We did get to see the sweet side of Daryl on last night's show! And I did die! It broke my heart and made me cry of happiness at the same time. I'm glad that you liked the last chapter and I hope you liked this one as well. Don't worry, I won't stop yet (though I can't guarantee that nothing will happen to them :p And don't apologize for being obsessed! I like it.  
SilverAdvenger12: You guys and your compliments are going to inflate my ego to ... I can't even think of a good size. But it would be huge. But thank you just the same! I'm so glad that you guys are enjoying this story.  
FanFicGirl10: I mean, eventually Emerson will have to die. I imagine at some point she will get old and die as old tend to do. But don't worry, I probably won't kill her in this story. :p Maybe. Yeah, protective Daryl's kind of my favorite. I want him in my life. Thank you so much for your review!  
Readergirl66: New reviewer! Hello! Thank you for your review. I'm happy you're enjoying this story so far! And I hope that you liked this chapter as well!  
And that's all I've got for now.  
I hope you enjoyed.  
Happy reading until my next update.  
Hugs and kisses,  
Chloe Jane.


	23. Chapter Twenty-Two

Disclaimer: I do not own the Walking Dead, although I'm completely obsessed with it and wished I did. Emerson, however, I do own.

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Check out my tumblr: MissChloeJane.  
I post spoilers. :D

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Just as a heads up, I'm bored.  
So I'm running "open auditions" for Walker parts for upcoming chapters.  
So, if you want to be featured as a Walker in an upcoming chapter. Send me a brief description of yourself (either on tumblr or vis PM on this site)  
and tell me which character you want to "interact" with and how you'd like to die.  
And I might work it into the story.  
Yeah ... this is what happens when I get bored.

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Chapter Twenty-Two:

"Daryl, I'm so sorry," Emerson whispered as Daryl stared straight ahead at the man that had a gun leveled at his chest. "I should have noticed that the glass on the front door was boarded up. I should have noticed the windows before I gave you the key. I was just so angry at you and worried about Matt that I didn't notice. Oh God! Matt! He's going to be all by himself."

"Shut up, bitch!" the man growled, turning his gun on the little bit of Emerson that he could see, her right arm, the only part of her body that wasn't being shielded by Daryl's body.

"Watch yer mouth!" Daryl growled, glaring at the man. He didn't care about the gun or the fact that he was probably going to die. He could handle all of that, what he couldn't handle was the way the man was talking to Emerson or the memories the angry man with the gun must have been bringing her. "Em," he growled, lowering his voice slightly. "It's goin' to be fine. I promise ya. There's gotta be a way outta this. We're gonna be fine." He didn't really believe it, but he could hear the girl hyperventilating behind him and he had to try something to get her to calm down before she passed out. "Listen to my voice," he growled. "It's gonna be fine."

The door at the back of the house banged open and both of their heads turned in time to see a tall, muscled man walking in the house, Matt's small body thrown over his shoulder. "Matt!" Emerson breathed, her voice a mix of relief that he was there and concern over the fact that he seemed to have been knocked out.

"Stay here," Daryl growled, but Emerson didn't listen. She pushed past his outstretched arm and ran toward the man who was explaining to his buddies what had happened. "Found him wailin' in front of the blue house down the street," the man said, his voice tinted with a thick Texas accent. Emerson flinched, she knew the blue house well, it was Matt's best friend's house. "He took care of himself pretty well," the man continued, "Shot the small child groaner, his gun jammed though. I took care of the other groaners and the boy started screamin' something about his Nana and parents. And wantin' his sister. I had to knock him out to keep him quiet." He turned to look at Emerson, his eyes had a look about them, like he was capable of being kind once, but not anymore, this world had hardened him. He had learned that you didn't survive off of being kind anymore. "He belong to you, Little Lady?" he asked Emerson.

"He belongs to me," Daryl growled, stepping forward and holding his arms out for the little boy. He knew enough not to just take him out of the man's hands. People could be pretty trigger happy nowadays. The man nodded and handed over the boy before he turned back to look at Emerson, his head cocked to the side as if he was trying to figure something out.

"These the two that broke in?" he asked, looking back at the man with the gun. "Heard about it over the radio. How'd you get in the house?" he asked. Daryl opened his mouth to explain but the man held up his hand, "I asked the lady," he said, nodding at Emerson.

"With the key," Emerson breathed softly. "It's been taped under the far rocking chair as long as I can remember."

"So that's where the spare key went," the man said with a nod, turning back to his group. "We've been lookin' for that key for months," he added before turning back to Emerson. "Say, how'd you know it was there?" Before Emerson could answer though the man cocked his head to the side again, studying her for the briefest moment before he lunged forward and lifted his hand to her cheek. Daryl growled low in his throat and surged forward to keep the man from touching Emerson but found his way blocked by the man with the gun. "Relax cowboy," the man who had brought Matt in said, "I'm just cleanin' some of the dirt off her face." He turned back to Emerson, "She's a pretty one ain't she? Almost reminds me of ..." his voice died off as he turned to look at the man with the gun. "Troy, where's Jackson?"

"I sent Callie to go look for him," the man with the gun, Troy, said. "They should be back soon. Jack was up on the roof last I checked. He's been trying to fix that leak. God knows why. It's not like we'll be staying here for much longer. If you ask me four months is too long to stay in a house this close to others. He's made me nervous with his determination to stay here. I keep telling him his girl is never coming back."

Emerson started at that. The people had been at her house for four months? They were waiting for someone? Had she run away from the group? Gotten separated when they first got here? Or was her house their meeting spot? It didn't make any sense for them to use her house for a meeting spot. How would the girl know to show up there? She was about to ask that when footsteps sounded on the staircase in the front walkway. Whoever they were waiting on was on their way down.

First came a tall brunette, she had been in the front hallway when Daryl and Emerson first walked into the house. Emerson assumed she was named Callie and she was slightly relieved when the woman smiled softly at Matt. They couldn't be all bad if she had a smile to spare for the little boy. And the man from Texas had saved Matt. He could have just left her brother to die. They couldn't be as threatening as they wanted to seem. And then the man walked into the room, his face hard and dirty. This must have been _Jackson_. Emerson stared at him for a moment before she emitted a shrill squeal and rushed forward toward him. It took the man a moment to recognize her, but when he did a slow and easy grin spread across his lips. Daryl made a noise of displeasure in his throat and she felt bad for him for the briefest moment before the blonde man in front of her swept her into his arms and picked her up off the ground. "Jackson!" she said, lifting her hands to his dirty cheeks and framing his face. "What are you doing here?" she asked him, she used her hand to wipe off as much dirt from his face as she could to see that it was really him.

"Easy there, E," his soft Texas accent teased as he put the small redhead back on the ground. "You don't want to wipe the clean skin off too!" Emerson smiled up at him at that statement. It had become a bit of an inside joke between them when they were in Afghanistan. Whenever Jackson Caulfield was injured and Emerson was trying to clean up the wound he'd tell her not to damage the good skin with all her wiping. Jackson stared at her for a moment, the grin sitting heavy on his lips. "God, E," he said, drawing her close to him again, "You had me worried. I thought I'd never see you again."

Emerson smiled up at Jackson for a moment before she remembered the rest of the group and Daryl and where they were. She quickly pulled away from Jackson and moved to stand next to Daryl. "It seems like you have some introductions and explanations to make, Jack," she said, her eyes darting around to the rest of his group. "I want to get Matt laying down seeing as one of your men knocked him out. And then you can make them."

"I have some introductions and explanations to make?" Jackson asked, raising his eyebrows at Daryl and the kid he was still holding in his arms. "Okay then, group meeting in the living room You used to live here, E, lead the way."

"Do ya really trust them?" Daryl asked as he and Emerson led the way to the front living room. "We should get out of here Em. There's gotta be another place we can stay. We'll head back home tomorrow."

"I am home," Emerson whispered back, her eyes darting around at the walls surrounding them. "I grew up in this house."

"I mean our home now," Daryl pointed out. "We can't stay here, Emerson. I don't like the look of the group. An' ya can't tell me that ya honestly trust them."

"Maybe not all of them," Emerson said, her eyes darting toward the group behind them, lighting on Troy and his gun in particular. "But Jackson, I trust him with me life. I had since day one. And he's one of the few people I know that, despite the fact that the world's ended and there are zombies walking around, I know I can still trust him with my life. He's a lot like you in that aspect."

Daryl raised his eyebrows at that. He wasn't sure if he liked the comparison. When they got to the living room Emerson took Matt from Daryl's arms and laid him down on the couch. She sat down, her hand resting on Matt's head and gently carding through the boy's hair. There was hardly room for him on the couch, but Daryl sat down next to the redhead, shooting a warning glare at the blonde man that raised his eyebrows at the action. Emerson lifted her gaze off of her brother and turned to look at Jackson who was sitting in her father's armchair, she felt a pang of sadness at that. "Now, what are you doing in my house, Jack?" she asked him before her eyes flitted across the room, landing on each of Jack's companions, "and who are these people?"

Jackson chuckled and shook his head, "You haven't changed a bit, E," he said. "You were always the type to get straight to the point. He gestured to the tall man that had brought Matt into the house, "This is Jim, we picked him and his wife up on the road about half a year ago. She didn't make it. Callie here," he pointed at the brunette woman, "she was a bar tender near Fort Bliss, she used to hook up with Troy back before all this shit. He couldn't leave town without her." He nodded to the shorter man with the gun, "Troy was the first friend I made after I touched down in Texas again. I couldn't leave without him. Wouldn't have made it without him. And we're at your house because I'm getting the hell out of the south and I couldn't do that without my best girl."

Daryl stiffened at that and Emerson reached out to grab his hand, giving it a gentle squeeze. "And how long were you planning on staying here?" she asked him. "Your man Troy said you've been here for almost four months? Come on, Jack, you're smarter than that. When we were out in the field in Afghanistan what was the rule? Unless you could completely secure the location no more than two nights, three tops. This house isn't secure."

"And this isn't Afghanistan," Jackson countered, shaking his head.

"It might as well be," Emerson said softly. "We're definitely at war with something. What made you think I'd even come back here?"

"Call it a hunch," Jackson said with a shrug. "Or a hope. I remember you saying your old man was one of those apocalypse, end of the world types so I thought maybe he had turned your house into a fortress. He hadn't, obviously, but we made it relatively secure. And we waited. I thought maybe you hadn't been home when shit hit the fan. But that maybe you'd come back for your parents." He nodded toward Daryl and Matt. "Your turn."

Emerson turned to Daryl instead of making the introductions right away. "Jackson and I served in Afghanistan together," she explained softly. "Back when he was a little shit head first Lieutenant who couldn't tell his head from his ass. He was the reason medic's like me had jobs. He's the look before you leap, no real plan, go in guns blazing type."

"So like ya?" Daryl asked, cracking a small smile at the redhead before it slipped from his lips.

"Yeah," Emerson said, rolling her eyes, "like me. Though I don't endanger half a unit with my stupid plans," she said, turning back to smile at Jackson before she made the introductions. "This is Matt," she said, nodding toward the unconscious boy on the couch, "my brother. And this," she said, patting Daryl's knee, "is Daryl Dixon, he -" she paused, unsure of how to explain Daryl to her friend. Daryl grinned at her when she bit her lower lip, worrying it between her teeth.

"I save her life," he said, reaching out to tug her lip away from her teeth. He leveled Jackson with a warning glare as he grabbed her hand and intertwined their fingers, "She belongs to me too," he said, turning to look at the other two men in the room as he repeated the words he had used to describe Matt to Jim about Emerson too.

"Got you," Jackson said with a nod, holding his hands up in surrender at Daryl's show of ownership. "E never liked the clean cut type even when the world was still working. That's why we never ended up together, huh E?"

"There were other reasons," Emerson said, shaking her head and trying to keep from smiling. "I seem to remember your penchant for banging every Airforce girl you could get your hands on was a hurdle in our relationship that I wasn't willing to jump over."

Jackson shrugged and pushed some of his blonde hair out of his eyes, it had gotten long since the last time Emerson had seen him. "Hey," he said with a chuckle. "The Airforce has to be good for something. I had no other use for them."

"Ah," Emerson said with a nod. "So I guess I should be glad that I was of some use to you, hmm?"

"Damn right," Jackson said with a nod before turning to Troy and Callie, "this woman sews the nicest stitches you'll ever see. Beautiful. Doesn't matter what's going on around us - bombs, night raids, probably groaners, her stitches are still even and straight. We're lucky to have her."

"Ya don' have her," Daryl growled at the same time that Callie rolled her eyes and said, "Great, another mouth to feed. We're already running low as it is and it looks like she's a package deal with the kid and the man."

"Now don't be like that, Cal," Jackson argued. "E's the reason we were here. But now that she's with us we can leave. Move north, find more food."

"Like hell we're comin' with ya," Daryl growled.

"Actually," Emerson spoke up, reaching out and running a soothing hand down Daryl's back. "Jack I think you and I need to talk. Because I can't come with you. I have a group here, one that kind of relies on Daryl and we're safe with them. I can't leave them," she glanced at Daryl, her eyes going soft for a moment, "especially now."

"We'll take them with us too," Jackson said with a shrug.

Emerson shook her head, "It's a big group Jack. That wouldn't be safe for you. Or fair for your group. Besides, we have a place. It's a safe one. We're not going to leave. We might have finally found a place we can call home."

"And what if it's not safe?" Jackson asked, worried.

Emerson shrugged, "What if up North isn't any better than the South?" she asked him.

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Matt woke up about an hour before the group had dinner. He refused to talk to Emerson, he wouldn't even look at her. Jim had said that Matt had been crying for his sister when he had found the boy, but Emerson didn't see any of that now. The good thing was that the young kid was thrilled to see Daryl. At least he had someone to talk to. The group ate dinner and then Daryl put Matt to bed. Daryl, Emerson, and Matt would be sleeping in Emerson's old room. Daryl and Emerson went up to bed shortly after dinner, it had been a trying day. Daryl fell asleep right away, but Emerson had trouble.

She didn't like being in her old room. Nothing about it had changed. The same stuffed animals sat in the same chair in the corner. Her old diary was still stuffed between the mattress and the box spring (she had checked). Her clothes were still in her dresser. Those were her pictures, books, and movies on the bookshelf. The pom poms from her high school cheerleading days were still sitting on her dresser. There were dirty clothes in the hamper. One of her bras was still on the floor by her bag she had brought with her for the week when she had visited her parents was still in the corner. She knew that it held the copy of Pet Semetery that she had been reading, two pens, a shirt she needed her mom to fix, and a present for Matt that she had gotten him when she was on leave in Germany. Nothing had changed about the room. But instead of feeling like a room it felt like a museum. The room might not have changed, but she had. She was a completely different person and so was the world. It didn't feel right to be in here now, it felt as though she was playing house.

She tossed and turned for a good three hours before she finally gave up on sleep. She got up from the bed and left the room, heading instead for the bathroom. On nights back in high school when she couldn't sleep she had always climbed out onto the roof from the bathroom window and watched the stars. That always calmed her down. Maybe it would still work now. She was surprised to see that the window was already open, waiting for her. She wasn't surprised to see Jackson waiting for her on the roof though. He was sitting on the eave, his head tilted up toward the sky, a lit cigarette hanging out of his mouth. "Couldn't sleep?" he asked her, nodding to the spot next to him. "I remember you told me in Afghanistan that this is what you used to do when you couldn't sleep," he added, explaining why he was waiting for her.

Emerson nodded, she could remember that night. She couldn't sleep so she had left the barracks and climbed up on a tank to watch the stars. Jackson had seen her and joined her. That was probably the night they had truly become friends. "Where'd you get a cigarette?" she asked him, surprised. She wasn't a huge smoker, but when she was in Afghanistan she had picked up the habit of smoking to deal with stress. She looked for cigarettes in stores now, but they were always gone. Too many people addicted to them.

Jackson looked guilty as he fished an almost full pack, only one was missing, out of his pocket and a lighter aw well. "I raided your panty drawer," he said, his lips twitching into a smirk. "I never took you for the crotchless panty type, E." He chuckled at the blush that rose on Emerson's face, but she didn't deny it. "I wanted to break into the pack right away," he said. "But they were yours. I figured you'd want them back, but you'd loan me one when you came back home."

Emerson shook her head as she stuck the cigarette between her lips and lit it. She smiled when the first inhale of nicotine reached her lungs. It had been so long since she had smoked a cigarette, she figured that half of one would probably make her light headed. "This isn't home anymore, Jack," she said as she exhaled the smoke toward the sky. "There's nothing here that feels remotely right, now."

"Where is your home, E?" Jackson asked. "And don't say something silly like _With Daryl_."

Emerson smiled at her friend. "It kind of is though," she said softly. "I can take care of myself. I can take care of Matt most days. But I feel safest when Daryl is with me. He won't let anything happen to either of us if he can help it."

"Speaking of the kid," Jackson said, nodding toward where her bedroom window was. "What's wrong with him? You skyped once with him in Afghanistan. And he absolutely adored you. This is a completely different kid."

Emerson nodded at her friend and took another puff from the cigarette, holding the smoke in her lungs for as long as possible before blowing it out. "He hates me," she whispered. "Found out that our parents are dead, have been for a while. And that I was lying to him, telling him that they were alive the entire time."

"Why'd you lie to him?" Jackson asked.

"Because I wanted him to have hope," Emerson said with a shrug. "I didn't want him to think that he was all on his own. I didn't want him to have to grow up before his time. He was going to lose so much, has lost so much. I wasn't quite ready for him to lose his parents too."

"E," Jackson chuckled, shaking his head. "Loss is a part of life, always has been. So what? Now it's a bit more violent, but it's still the same thing. Everybody loses people."

"Oh yeah?" Emerson asked, her voice and face defensive. "Who have you lost Jack? Your parents?"

"Probably," Jackson said with a nod. "They were in Arizona. For a while we had cell reception, but they kept telling me not to come get them. That they would be safe. And then one day the cell phones stopped working. I never bothered to go look for them. They wouldn't have been able to make it."

Emerson shook her head. "I lost my parents," she said. "Right out there on the front walk," she nodded toward the lawn. "My dad gave me and Matt everything he could to ensure that we'd survive and then sent us to the hunting cabin. He said they'd meet us there. But they never did. So I came back to look for them. They had already been bit and turned. They were Walkers. They tried to kill me, eat me alive. If it weren't for my next door neighbor I wouldn't be around now. I watched my neighbor shoot the monsters that used to be my parents. So don't you dare talk to me about loss, Jackson Caulfield. You don't know loss. And don't judge me for trying to shield an eight year old from that. Don't you dare." Jackson was silent for a moment, he looked the other way when Emerson reached up and wiped away some tears that were sliding down her cheeks. "I'm sorry," she said softly, "I shouldn't have said that. I can't judge your loss. You loved your parents."

"Sure did," Jackson said, moving closer to her so that he could wrap his arm around her shoulders. "But I didn't watch them die. I'm sorry, E."

Emerson nodded. "That's why we can't stay here," she said softly. "They feel alive here. And they're not. You can stay here. You can go north. Hell, you can come with us. But we're leaving tomorrow morning."

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Author's Note:  
So I couldn't leave you guys for a week. I like you guys too much for that.  
Besides ... six of you left me reviews telling me I wasn't allowed to take a week long break. (My personal favorite was the one who told me they would allow me to take three days tops. :D)  
I hope you guys like the chapter! Review and let me know. I love reading your reviews and thoughts.  
Special thanks goes to: _AshleyPetrova_, _Kmonty13_, _aFallensrequiem_, and _sparklekris39_ who added this story to their favorites list. And to: _AshleyPetrova, GaeliLove_, _Kay1104_, _Kmonty13_, _Little-Miss-Army_, _aFallensrequium_, _elizabethtran12_, _moonquirk_, _sparklekris39_, and _theselightswillfade _who added this story to their alerts list.  
But as always, the **BIGGEST** of special thanks goes to those who **REVIEWED** on the last chapter:  
**ResidentGoth: **Hahaha. I was wondering where you had been dear! I was about to send out a search party for you. I'm glad that you liked the kiss and everything that happened after it and I hope that you liked this chapter as well. And yeah, I'm replacing the prison, but it might still make a temporary appearance in this story, I'm playing around with some ideas.  
I know! Daryl and the baby! My ovaries may have exploded during that scene. I felt so bad for Rick and Glenn. Rick must have been going through so much. I feel so bad for him! And don't worry, I definitely didn't leave you for a week. :D  
**Gaby de Brabant: **You should totally watch this week's episode online! It was so good. You don't even know. So I've created monsters, have I? I like that. And don't worry, I'll manage with them. I'm so glad that you liked the last chapter and I hope that you liked this chapter as well. And don't worry about being mad at Emerson, a lot of people are, she's being a bit of an idiot now, but it'll be okay later, I promise. I hope I didn't keep you waiting for too long!  
**SilverAdvenger: **I know, I know. I'm a mean author. But I didn't leave it there for that long. I made it work out. I'm glad that you liked the last chapter and I hope that you liked this one as well.  
**DBugMom: **I'm glad you liked the last chapter and I hope I didn't make you wait too long for today's (I slept late this morning). Fingers crossed that you liked this chapter as well. And yeah, I don't know what it is about men and babies ... I don't have a baby yet, don't really want one. But when Daryl was holding that baby ... I wanted the package deal. :D  
**Ravennn: **There is no such thing as enjoying this story "too much" (at least not in my opinion). I'm glad that you liked the chapter so much and I hope that you liked this chapter too. Thank you so much for your review!  
**wolfhappiness: **They're both equally stupid, it runs in their family. :D Sad thing is they seem to think they're doing the right thing. So it wasn't the neighbor, but in the grand scheme of WD where people just seem to be able to find their loved ones (i.e. Rick just happens to team up with Lori's group by complete accident in the first season) Emerson knows them.  
And yeah, I've had dreams about Daryl and the baby. They were amazing. Can I get in on this mission too?  
**DancingUnderMoonlight18: **I didn't leave it there for long. Do you forgive me? I'm glad that you liked the last chapter and I hope that you liked this chapter as well (even if Matt's being a bit of a brat... I figure I can forgive him for that after his sister lied to him though.) I will see you back here soon and don't worry, from what I've written so far there aren't any more cliffhangers in the foreseeable future (or at least the next two chapters or so.)  
**JDMlvr1: **Except she says they can stay. Because it's not her house anymore. I'm glad that you're enjoying the story and I would like to thank you for giving me a three day break (even if I didn't take it. :D)  
**Readergirl66: **Yup, at some point Emerson's going to have to face the fact that she wasn't doing Matt any favors by keeping him in the dark about their parents. I'm glad you liked the last chapter and I hope you liked this one as well. Thank you for your review!  
**morbidmandee: **Matty came back! He's safe(ish) just being a little brat (which I would say s allowed in this case). Thank you so much for your review and I hope you liked this chapter too.  
**FanFicGirl10: **Hello dear! I'm so glad that you liked the last chapter and I hope that you like this one as well. She really did a number on her brother though, didn't she? Thank you so much for your review!  
**sparklekris39: **When I read the "OK." at the beginning of the review I braced myself for bad news! I was like, oh no! This girl hates my story and she's about to tear it apart. And then I read it and I'm so happy I'm grinning from ear to ear! I get so excited when people like my story, it's a surprise.  
I'm so glad I could provide the type of story that you were looking for. (And I'm even more glad that I've gotten you completely hooked). Just don't get in trouble for reading this at work! And you're more than welcome for the story. Thank you, thank you, thank you for reading and taking the time to review!  
**MagicalElf73: **Apparently not me, I don't know why I thought I might want to take a break. I thought it was pretty obvious that Matt was going to run, but apparently Emerson thought that they could have a grown up conversation about this without him getting upset.  
And putty ... that would be a good word to use to describe what I was, yeah.  
And that's all I've got for now! Thank you guys so much for your reviews!  
Happy reading until tomorrow!  
Hugs and kisses,  
Chloe Jane.


	24. Chapter Twenty-Three

Disclaimer: I do not own the Walking Dead, although I'm completely obsessed with it and wished I did. Emerson, however, I do own.

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Check out my tumblr: MissChloeJane.  
I post spoilers. :D

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Just as a heads up, I'm bored.  
So I'm running "open auditions" for Walker parts for upcoming chapters.  
So, if you want to be featured as a Walker in an upcoming chapter. Send me a brief description of yourself (either on tumblr or vis PM on this site)  
and tell me which character you want to "interact" with and how you'd like to die.  
And I might work it into the story.  
Yeah ... this is what happens when I get bored.

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Chapter Twenty-Three:

When Daryl woke up the next morning Emerson was curled against his side. She wasn't asleep though, when he looked down at her, her green eyes were wide open and watching him. "Matt woke up an hour ago," she said softly. "Didn't even look at me. He's in his bedroom right now. Picking out books and games to bring back to the group for him and Carl. I figured we'd take some clothes back too. They're having breakfast down stairs. I invited Jackson to come back with us last night, but he's not sure." Daryl looked uncomfortable at that news. Emerson sighed and craned her neck so that she could press a kiss against the bottom of Daryl's chin. "I trust Jackson," she said. "I don't really know the rest of them, but if he trusts them. I can try."

"No," Daryl said, shaking his head and frowning at Emerson. He cared for Emerson, would do anything to see her happy and safe, but he flat out refused this. "No." Emerson raised her eyes in surprise, when Daryl had first woken up his eyes had been filled with a sleepy sort of happiness, but they were hard now.

She sighed, "Daryl," she said softly. "He had my back in Afghanistan. He came back here to get me, to help me. I can't just leave them out there. If something happened to him I would never be able to forgive myself. He's one of my best friends, Dare."

"An' I don' trust him," Daryl growled. "I can't. I get it, Em. He helped ya out overseas. He had yer back, ya had his. But it's not just ya anymore. Yer part of a group, ya've got to look out for the group, for yer brother. They ain't comin' back with us. They can't. Ya can't just make decisions like this on yer own. Ya have to talk to the group. We take votes, we discuss things. Ya can't keep running off an' makin' decisions without tellin' people, askin' them. This shit has got to stop." Emerson sighed, a pout resting on her lips. Daryl glanced at her and his glare softened a bit, "If ya want to ya can ask Rick about it," he said softly. "I won' back ya up though. If he asks my opinion I'll tell him the truth, I don' trust them."

Emerson sighed and looked up at Daryl. He was angry, that much was obvious, but he was trying to understand her. She looked up at him for a moment before she lifted her head off the pillow so that she could give him a kiss. Daryl stiffened for a moment, he was still angry at Emerson, but he wanted to kiss her; he smiled when he ran his tongue against Emerson's bottom lip and she opened her mouth enough to let his tongue inside. Their tongues slid against each other for a moment and Daryl was contemplating sliding his hand up her shirt and taking this kiss further when a taste registered on her tongue. He pulled away from her, his hand resting on her flat stomach. "Where'd ya get a smoke?" he asked her, surprised that even at the end of the world a girl could apparently find a cigarette if she needed one.

Emerson grinned up at him before she reached to the bedside table beside the bed and pulled out a pack of cigarettes and a lighter. "I figured you had been a smoker before all this started," she said as she handed them to him. "I apparently had these hidden in my underwear drawer. Jackson found them when he was snooping around my room at some point. Said he saved them for me." Daryl didn't like the fact that the man had taken it upon himself to snoop through Emerson's clothes, specifically her underwear. But it was hard for him to be irritated about anything when he was inhaling his first cigarette in the past year. "I'll tell you one thing," Emerson said, as she reached out and plucked the cigarette from between Daryl's fingers so that she could take a puff before she handed it back to him. "I figured that I was done with smoking. You know, nothing like a zombie apocalypse to cure you of a nicotine addiction. But the second I had one in my hand, well it felt so familiar and nice. Didn't realize how much I'd missed them until I had them again."

"Didn' figure ya for the smokin' type," Daryl said as he blew out a lungful of smoke. "Ain't girls worried about their health an' all that?"

Emerson shrugged, "Maybe some are," she said with a smile. "All I was ever worried about was the fact that they took the stress away. Got into them on my first tour in Iraq. I was freaking out and probably not ready to be in a war zone. One of the guys in my unit gave me a cigarette one afternoon, said that it would calm me down. I've been sold ever sense." She stole another puff from Daryl's, "When did you start smoking?" she asked him.

"Way too young," came Daryl's answer. Emerson smiled grimly at him. They may have been together, but Daryl was back to his usual, closed off self. And she couldn't even be mad at him. This was the man she had known he was when she started to like him. She couldn't blame him for being that same man now that they were dating. Could she even consider what they were doing as dating? Could you date someone after the end of the world? "We should get packin'," Daryl said once he had finished the cigarette. "We want to get on the road soon, yeah?"

Emerson nodded agreeing that they should start packing. But instead of climbing out of the bed she snuggled in closer to him. When he didn't automatically cuddle her she sighed and grabbed his arm, lifting it over her shoulders so that she could snuggle into his side. Daryl stiffened for a moment before he relaxed and wrapped his arm tighter around her. Emerson smiled and turned her head so that she could press a kiss onto Daryl's naked chest. It took her a moment, but she pulled away from him, "You're shirtless," she said, her eyes wide.

Daryl nodded, "An' yer an observant one, ain't ya?" he teased. Emerson rolled here eyes and turned back to his chest, her hand running over the skin above his sternum. She moved them to the dark scars over his right collar bone. Daryl stiffened as she ran her fingers along the long lines, but he didn't push her hand away like he would have done with anyone else. Emerson asked him softly what happened. "It was a long time ago," was Daryl's answer after a long pause.

Emerson sighed, "You don't have to tell me," she said softly. She stopped running her fingers along the line, but she kept her hand over the scars. "But I wish you would. I trust you with my life Daryl. I don't know why. That first day I saw you in the woods I thought you were a crazy person, but you saved my life. And you've done that quite a few times since I met you. I trust you. And I just wish that you trusted me enough to let me in." She didn't know what he was so worried about, and she didn't know how to prove to him that she wasn't going to leave him or abandon him. But she wished she did.

Daryl took a deep breath. He should have known this was coming. It was his own fault, he had been the one who took his shirt off the night before. She was bound to notice the scars. Maybe part of him had even been hoping that she would. But now that she had, now that she had asked about them he didn't know what to say or do. "It's," he paused, not sure how to continue, "it's not a nice story." Emerson nodded silently, she had figured that much, a person didn't get scars that deep and dark while running through a field of flowers on a sunny day. She turned her head again and pressed another kiss onto his chest. She wasn't going to push him, it was completely up to him whether or not he told her the story. Daryl paused again, maybe he could just leave it at that, but he knew that Emerson would constantly be wondering about them. "My dad was a drunk," he said, his tone gruff and business like. If he was going to tell the story he was going to do it quickly. "My ma left when I was young, she was barely a mother to Merle an' by the time I came around she didn' stick around long enough to try an' be any better. Dad wasn' good with kids, didn' want us. Merle used to hide me when Dad came home drunk off his ass, Merle took the brunt of it. But when he got sent to juvie there was no one to protect me an' I wasn' no good at hidin' myself."

"Oh God Daryl," Emerson breathed softly, already regretting asking about the scars. She didn't like the idea of Daryl getting abused, but hearing that it had happened at such a young age terrified her. She could just imagine Daryl as a five year old boy trying and failing to hide from a drunk, abusive father. "I'm so sorry," she apologized - both for what had happened to him and for the fact that she had brought up old memories. "I'm so sorry, Dare."

Daryl shrugged, "The knife wounds were nothin' I couldn' handle. I'd take those any day over the burns." He chuckled cynically at the distressed look on Emerson's face. "I told ya this wasn' a happy story," he sad as he leaned forward to kiss her forehead. "But I turned out good, didn' I? No lastin' damage." Emerson nodded, but she didn't look convinced. Daryl lowered his lips to hers and kissed the worried pout there, "I'm fine, Honey," he said soothingly. "Jus' fine. There's nothin' wrong with me. Nothin' ya need to worry yer pretty head about anyway."

Emerson smiled at him softly and tilted her head so she could kiss Daryl's lips one more time. She had more questions she wanted to ask him, but she didn't want to bring up any old scars (both literally or figuratively). "Merle?" she asked him softly, her eyebrows raised. There was something about the name, that had caught her attention during the story.

Daryl chuckled, "Outta that whole story, that's what ya've got a question about? Okay, yes Merle. That's my older brother. We lost him in Atlanta. But he ain't dead. Rick chained him up on a roof see? An' then T lost the key to the cuffs. Walkers were comin' after him so he cut off his own hand, cauterized the wound on his own too. My brother's the toughest son of a bitch I've ever met. He's still out there, ya could bet on that." He turned to look at Emerson and was surprised to see that her eyes were wide with surprise. "That's nothin' ya have to worry about neither, Em," he said, mistaking her surprise for concern. "Merle probably saw a lot worse when he was in prison."

Emerson bit her lip, hesitating for a moment. Daryl reached out and tugged her lip out from between her teeth with a sigh. This girl and her lip biting were going to be the death of him. She took a deep inhale and opened her mouth, he was sure that she was going to ask him another question about his scars. But before she got the chance Matt walked into the bedroom. Daryl chuckled and shook his head, the kid sure had some of the worst timing he had ever seen. "I need help," Matt said, not even sparing a look at Emerson.

"What do you need, buddy?" Emerson asked, sitting up right away and getting ready to climb out of bed to help her brother.

Matt ignored her and turned to Daryl. "Will you help me get a suitcase out of my closet?" he asked the older man. "It's too high for me to reach and I need something to pack the games and books in."

Daryl turned to look at Emerson. He could practically read the heartbreak on her face as her brother ignored her even further. Daryl raised his eyebrows, silently asking her if she wanted him to help her brother. Emerson shrugged, but another look at her brother made her sigh and nod her consent. "Sure, kid," Daryl said with a sigh of his own as he climbed off the bed. "I was gonna come get ya anyway. Yer sister wants to get on the road soon," he added as he followed the kid out of the room.

"And of course Emerson knows what's best for everyone," Matt said, glaring at the floor as he led Daryl down the hall toward his bedroom. "She doesn't ask opinions or let you make your own choices. Because she knows best. Do you think she ever realizes that she doesn't know what's best? Never has. Probably not, because everyone just listens to her, lets her make decisions for them."

"Hey," Daryl growled, grabbing the kid's shoulder and spinning him roughly so that he was pinned against his bedroom wall. "I don' care how much ya miss yer parents, or how much ya think ya deserved to know the truth earlier. I do not want to ever hear ya talk about yer sister like that again. Ya hear me? She's all ya got left. An' she's doin a hell of a job at keepin' ya safe. Yeah, she lied to ya, but she did it because she loves ya. An' ya don't deserve the right to make her feel miserable for doin' what yer parents wanted her to do - protectin' ya. Ya hear me?" he asked again, glaring at the young boy.

The boy looked at him defiantly for a full moment before his lip began to tremble and tears began to fill his eyes. He nodded, "I just miss them," the little boy sobbed. "And I thought they were alive, I thought they had a chance. I don't want to lose them."

"Oh Honey," Emerson breathed from the bedroom door. She had followed Matt and Daryl and had made it to the bedroom door just in time to hear the tail end of Daryl's lecture. "Matt," she said, "I'm so sorry that I fucked that up. I'm sorry that I did this to you."

Matt looked at her for a moment before he nodded. He reached out and shoved Daryl's hand off his shoulder so that he could walk over to Emerson. "I'm sorry too, Emmy," he said as he wrapped his arms around her waist and buried his face in her stomach. "I should never have gotten angry at you. And I never should have run off like I did yesterday. I'm sorry."

Emerson leaned down to press a reassuring kiss to the top of Matt's head. She pulled him closer to her for a moment before she gently pushed him away from her and fixed him with a stern look. "We will have to talk about that," she said, her voice as stern as her face. "You can't just run off like that. It's not safe."

Daryl chuckled and fixed Emerson with a look of his own. "An' after that you and I will have to have a talk about that too, Honey," he warned.

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They were on the road within the next hour. Jackson hadn't been happy about it, but his group wasn't going with them. Troy still felt as though getting out of the south was their best bet and Jackson couldn't leave his best friend. And Daryl hadn't made it a secret that the group was not welcome. It bothered Emerson though, before they left she approached Jackson. "Maybe we should have a meet up place," she suggested. "Or a plan to be on the same radio frequency, just in case," she had said with a shrug. "In case you reach the Georgia-Tennessee border and decide that going north won't work for you. Tell you what, if you get North and decide it's no better. Come back here, on the far west side of town you'll be within radio range, radio me and let me know you're here. I'll try to come get you."

Jackson had smiled down at her and held his arms open, silently asking for a hug. "I'm going to worry about you every day, E," he said, tightening his arms around her so that she was pressed closer to him. "Why can't you come with me? Like old times?" Emerson pulled back slightly and gave Jackson a look that clearly said that he knew why she couldn't come with him. "You can bring your brother," Jackson said. "And the redneck if you really needed to. Just come with us. You really think he has your back like I do? We went to war together, E. I've got your six."

Emerson shook her head and stood on her tiptoes so that she could kiss Jackson's cheek. "I know you do, Jack," she said softly. "You always have. But this group, Daryl and the others," she paused thinking about Glenn, Maggie, Carl, Rick, Lori, T-Dog, Hershel, Carol and Beth. "They're my family," she said with a sigh. "Just as much as Matt is. I can't leave them. Just like you'll be constantly worried about me. I would be worried about them. And there's so many to worry about. They need me and I need them." She kissed his cheek again and pulled out of his arms. She started to walk away, but turned around at the last moment, "Don't call him a redneck," she said, her tone serious.

Jackson chuckled and shook his head. "Hey Echo," he called out, using his other nickname for her, the phonetic alphabet letter _E_. She turned around and raised her eyebrows at him, silently waiting for what he had to say. "Watch your six, little girl," her friend warned. "It's a different world out there. We came across an LT from Benning. The grunt says that he heard about a man out here, buzz is that he and his men find groups and kill them. They take their supplies of course, but they also take the bodies."

Emerson nodded at him and lifted her shirt a bit so that he could see her knives and gun that she had strapped around her waist. "I think I can take care of myself, huh?" she asked him.

"I reckon you can," Jackson said with a nod. "But keep your gat loaded and your eyes open."

"Will do," Emerson said with a nod. "And remember Jack, if your enemy is in range than so are you," she warned, repeating their COs constant warning when they were in Afghanistan. "Don't let a Walker get you. And if anyone dies, do yourself a favor and shoot them in the head."

"Hooah!" Jackson said with a nod and a joking salute. "With any luck we'll both make it through his, E."

"Hooah!" Emerson responded back with a salute of her own. She didn't really believe that anyone was going to make it through this, but she didn't want to tell Jackson that. People had to be able to hope for something after all. She gave him one more parting smile before she walked out of the house to where Daryl and Matt were waiting for her in the car, ready to go home.

They drove in silence for the first five minutes. Emerson silently directing the way so that Daryl wouldn't take the road through the middle of town. It had been two days since the caravan had driven through the town and led the Walkers toward the drawbridge, but Emerson didn't want to risk having another group follow them out of town, they were running out of roads to take to Berry. Once they were beyond the town limits and driving through the nothingness that divided Glenwood from Berry College Emerson turned to look at Daryl, her face worried, "Are you actually angry at me?" she asked him.

"Damn right I'm angry at ya," Daryl muttered, not taking his eyes off the road. Now that they were in the safety of the car and heading back to the group Daryl was no longer able to contain his anger. He had been relieved when he found her the night before, he hadn't trusted the group they were with so he had been tense and worried through the night and the morning. But now, now all he could feel was anger. She hadn't told anyone that she was leaving, she hadn't even hinted at it to Daryl. He was hurt by that, he could admit it. But more than that he was angry at her for endangering the group. What if Glenn, or Maggie, or Carol had tried to chase after her and had gotten lost? Stranded? With no way to get back to the group and the safety behind the school's walls? He asked her what she would have done then and her eyes got wide with worry, she hadn't thought of that. "Yeah," he growled. "Ya didn' think. Ya never think, Em. This is why I need to take care of ya. Ya never think."

Emerson sighed and looked down at her hands, too embarrassed to even try to look at Daryl. "I'm sorry," she whispered. "I would never want to endanger the group, I would never forgive myself if something happened to them. I just," she paused trying to find a way to explain to Daryl why she _had_ to leave and go back home. "Matt was going to leave," she said, remembering what her brother said the morning before. "He said he'd take Lou and he'd leave. He had already made up his mind. And even if I said no, even if I told other people to watch him. There's no way we could watch him twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. If he wanted to leave he would. He's stubborn, like me in that way. I couldn't let him do that. I had to go with him."

Daryl didn't look like he liked her explanation. But Matt spoke up from the back seat, "She's right Daryl," he said, his voice loud and stubborn. "I would have left without her. I knew how I was going to do it. Lou and I were going to climb into the trunk of one of the cars they were moving and then after they syphoned off the gas and left we were going to climb out and go home. I even found a car with a cord you can pull if you're trapped in the trunk. That was going to be the one we hid in. I was going to go."

Emerson sent a look at Daryl as she gestured at her brother with a wave of her hand that could only say, _See? I had to go!_ Daryl sighed. "We'll talk about it when we get back to the group," he warned, ending the subject for now.

* * *

Author's note:  
So most of you guys seemed to really not like Jackson huh?  
That's okay, I didn't really like him either, he was getting in the way of Emerson and Daryl.  
But he and his group may be playing a role in later chapters (I'm deciding that now) so he might not be completely gone just yet.  
**JUST SO YOU GUYS KNOW: my older brother and his wife are having a baby tomorrow (C-section so I know the exact time - 10 am). The thing with that is that I'm the godmother which means I need to be at the hospital to catch the baby or whatever happens during childbirth. I'll be there all day tomorrow and maybe Friday morning too. Which means I'm going to need to take a brief break from posting on here (one to two days tops don't worry.)  
****I just wanted to let you guys know so you don't freak out if I don't post tomorrow. But then I'll be back!  
**Okay. Now, I want to thank you for stopping by to read this chapter and I hope you enjoyed it.  
**Big** special thanks to those who **reviewed** on the last chapter:  
**MagicalElf73**: They didn't take her up on her offer (obviously) but they might later. You never know, as I said, I have tentative plans for Jackson's group. And you're right, Daryl wouldn't be thrilled. He might even punch Jackson (maybe).  
**mrskaz453**: Yeah, Emerson is making some mistakes, but you've got to realize her heart's in the right place, even if her brain really isn't. She's not thinking about all the possible outcomes, but she's trying to do right by the people she cares about. And don't worry, she'll be getting a wake up call but it won't come at the cost of one of the group's death. (I couldn't do that, I like them too much.)  
**ResidentGoth**: I love that there's an Emerson/Daryl ship and that most people don't like him because he's barging in on it. And don't worry, I'm not going to let him interrupt your ship (YET ... maybe) I finally got your reviews from when you were home by the way (delayed posting apparently) I'm so glad that you got so excited over the last few chapters and I hope that you liked this one as well.  
And no, thank you for following me on tumblr. (I get so excited whenever I get a new follower you don't even know.) But seriously, don't worry, for now your ship is safe.  
**DBugMom**: You're welcome dear. I'm sorry you had to wait late again this morning. I was on babysitting duty for my younger brother today and he's too sick to go to school so I had to entertain him until the cold medicine kicked in and he fell asleep. I'm glad you liked the details about her room, I was worried people would be like, "What's the point of this?" I hope you liked this chapter too.  
**shaybay55**: hahaha. So what you're saying is that I should slow down the updates so you can review? :p I'm glad that you liked the last three chapters and I hope that you liked this one as well! And hopefully I can keep up the good work.  
**DancingUnderMoonlight18**: No one likes Jackson. Apparently Emerson has shady friends. Part of me wonders if you guys just don't like him because he could possible mess up Daryl and Emerson's relationship. That he wouldn't seem so shady if he was, say gay and not into Em at all. Am I onto something here? And no. Emerson couldn't go with Jackson, you're right, no way. She loves Daryl (or maybe that's me). Anyway, I hope that you enjoyed this chapter as well!  
**wolfhappiness**: I know, I took such a long break, right? I'm glad you liked the last chapter (I hoped that the thing about her room would make people realize how weird it would be to go home after something like this. I hope that you liked this chapter as well.  
**Embers in the flames**: Two reviews, you spoil me! I'm glad that you liked the last chapters and I hope you liked this one too. And you're welcome, I'm glad my story makes your day (that makes my day).  
**Readergirl66**: I had you on the edge of your seat? That's good news. And yeah, it's really easy to say you don't like possessive boys until Daryl is being possessive and adorable. And then you just have to love them. By the way, you're the first person to say something nice about Jack. Most people hated him without even stopping to appreciate the history between them and the fact that he's one of Em's last ties to when her life was normal. So thanks for noticing!  
**SilverAdvenger12**: Thank you for your review! I hope you liked this chapter too!  
**sparklekris39**: Hello dear! It was an excellent chapter? Really? I hope that you liked this one too! There was some romance in it for you, and some mush. And lots of Daryl (because let's face it... he's my guilty pleasure). And yeah! I had to put those lyrics in here somewhere, I love that song so much and ... yeah, things I love tend to make it into this story.  
**FanFicGirl10**: Shit's not going down just yet... but maybe soon. I'm glad you liked the last chapter and I hope that you like this one as well. Thanks for the review!  
**Gaby de Brabant**: Daryl is quickly becoming my ideal man. I probably will never be able to get married because no man will live up to Daryl Dixon. (Especially after the last episode! With the baby! Didn't your heart just explode?) I'm glad you like my tumblr! Thank you so much for following me! I hope you liked this chapter as well, by the way. :D  
And that's all I've got for now!  
I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. Let me know.  
Until next update, happy reading!  
Hugs and kisses,  
Chloe Jane.


	25. Chapter Twenty-Four

Disclaimer: I do not own the Walking Dead, although I'm completely obsessed with it and wished I did. Emerson, however, I do own.

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Check out my tumblr: MissChloeJane.  
I post spoilers. :D

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Chapter Twenty-Four:

"How dare you?" Maggie yelled as soon as the gate had been closed and locked behind their car. Emerson looked at the young woman with wide eyes as she ran toward her. She was convinced that Maggie was going to hit her, she looked angry enough to do it. Instead the brunette threw her arms around the shorter redhead and hugged her close. "How dare you?" she yelled again though as she pulled away from her. "That was inconsiderate, so stupid, reckless, selfish, stupid, worrisome, and so -"

"Before she says stupid again, come here," Glenn interrupted Maggie and pulled Emerson into his arms. "We were worried about you," the Asian said, pulling away enough so that he could look Emerson over for any wounds she may have gotten on her adventure. "You should have told one of us you were leaving," he said, "someone would have gone with you. We were so -"

"Worried!" Maggie interrupted again as she moved away from Daryl to get closer to Emerson again. "I was so worried about you. And you were so stupid." Emerson grinned shyly at Glenn's eye roll when Maggie went back to calling her stupid. She hadn't even realized that she had gotten close enough to Maggie to make the girl worry about her but apparently she had. "Stop grinning!" Maggie yelled angrily. "Nothing about this is funny. I almost killed your redneck for trying to kill my boyfriend for letting you drive away!" She caught onto Emerson's surprised face and nodded. "He didn't tell you?" she asked. "Yeah, he comes out of the woods and thinks your dead. Tries to hurt Glenn for letting it happen to you. You were so stupid."

Emerson was about to laugh at Maggie's lack of new words to describe her stupidity when she heard Rick say her name from behind her. She turned around to see the group leader looking at her much the way her father had when he was disappointed in her, his face was stern - more stern than she had ever seen it. "I seem to remember us having a talk about how you'd follow the rules from now on after the farm house incident," Rick lectured. "You said that you would follow the rules from now on. One of our rules is that no one goes off on their own without telling the group where they're going."

"She wasn't alone," Matt interrupted from behind Emerson. "She had me. I could have protected her. And Daryl got there later. She didn't go off alone."

Emerson shushed Matt before she turned back to look at Rick. "I know Rick," she said with a sigh. "I was stupid," she cast a sideways glance at Maggie before looking back at Rick. "I didn't think. And I put the group's safety at risk, something I would never do on purpose. But Matt was going to go yesterday whether I went with him or not. I couldn't let him go alone. I mean, who could?"

Rick nodded, "I understand that," he said. "But that is no excuse. Do you really think we would have stopped you guys from going? That we would have told you _No_?" He shook his head. "We wouldn't have done that. We would have let you go, but someone would have gone with you and the group as a whole would have known that you were going. Just because you're part of the group doesn't mean you can't go look for people you care about. No one would have told you no." Emerson looked pointedly at Rick before she let her gaze land on Daryl for just a second before she brought it back to Rick. The older man sighed, "Next time you want to go on a rescue mission tell me. _I_ won't tell you no. I mean, if we had a lead on Merle do you think we'd tell Daryl he couldn't go looking for him?" He raised his eyebrows at Emerson's visible flinch at his last sentence, but he didn't ask her about it. "You're no different. You're free to leave whenever you want. We just want you and the rest of the group to be safe when you do so."

Emerson nodded, "I understand now," she said before she turned to the rest of the group. "I'm sorry for worrying you guys, or making you feel unsafe. It won't happen again, I promise this time. And I'll do whatever I can to make it up to you. I'll keep guard for the next two nights, I'll go hunting for more food. Anything I can do."

"Two nights won't be necessary," Rick said, the kind look returning to his eyes now that he had made Emerson feel sufficiently guilty. "But you will be on guard duty tonight with Maggie." Emerson nodded, silently accepting her punishment before Rick turned to Matt and bent down so that he was at eye level with the young boy. "Now Matt," he said, "what's in that bag?"

-.-.-.-.-

Maggie had volunteered to keep watch with Emerson that night after everyone had gone to bed. It was a quiet night, Maggie told Emerson that everything was quiet around the college when Emerson brought it up and said that she was surprised. It reminded Maggie a bit of the farm, if you didn't look toward the school where the Walkers were just waiting for their chance to get to the humans you could almost pretend that Walkers didn't exist, that the world was a perfectly calm, happy place where everyone was safe. The two women had taken to sitting side by side on the wall, with their legs dangling over it. Every hour or so they would stand up and walk along the wall looking for any Walkers. Besides the ones trapped in the school they never saw any. "So your parents?" Maggie asked softly. "They didn't make it?" Emerson glanced at Maggie, her eyebrows raised, "Matt told me this afternoon that you didn't find them."

"They never stood a chance," Emerson said softly. "I lied to Matt. They were bit and turned long before we ever joined the group. I couldn't tell him though. I was selfish. I wanted to keep my little brother for a bit longer. And I blew it. Did he tell you that he told me he hated me and that he ran away?" Maggie shook her head. Emerson sighed, "He did. He ran away. And when he got back he wouldn't even talk to me."

"He seems fine with you now," Maggie pointed out. "He was talking to you when you guys got back. He couldn't have been that mad at you."

"Daryl said something to him," Emerson said with a shrug. "This morning actually. I'd say he was great with Matt except that he yelled at him. Sort of. But Matt listened to him. Daryl told him that I was all he had left. And that he wasn't going to deal with Matt making me feel miserable for trying to protect him. And Matty listened to him. I mean, I don't think it's all good yet, but he's trying. It'll be years before I think he forgives me for everything. But we're working on it."

"How did he get back to the house?" Maggie asked. Emerson supposed that she could have told Maggie about Jackson and his group. It wasn't like they were a secret. She was going to have to tell Rick about Jackson's warning. And if Jackson's group decided to go back to Glenwood and radioed her she would have to explain how she knew them. But she didn't want to share the story, not right now. She shrugged. Maggie nodded and changed the subject. "You know what I miss the most?" she asked Emerson, turning to look at the redhead. "I miss pizza. So much. I never ate it much before -" she gestured at the land surrounding the school, "before this. But now that I can't have it, I want it all the time."

Emerson smiled at the woman, "You know what I miss the most?" she asked, her smile quickly turning into a smirk. "Ryan Gosling. You know? The guy from the Notebook. He was amazing. And so hot. I miss his muscles. They were beautiful."

Maggie grinned at her, "Don't let Daryl hear you talk like that," she warned. "He might get jealous." Emerson threw her head back and laughed at that one. Maggie was quiet for a moment. "What do you think happened to them?" she asked a bit later. "The Hollywood types? The famous people? Did someone save them because they're famous? Or are there just some very handsome Walkers out in California?" Emerson shrugged, she didn't know the answer to that question. Maggie nodded, "Do you think anyone will ever save us?" she asked a minute later.

"Do you think there's anyone left to save us?" Emerson asked in return. She shook her head, "I think we're on our own from now on. There's no one left that's capable of saving us."

"Well that's depressing," Maggie said with a grim smile before she stood up and prepared to do another round on the wall. The women were quiet for the rest of the night, each of them lost in their own thoughts and when morning came they were more than happy to climb off the wall and head to their cars to sleep.

The lot was completely empty of cars now besides the group's cars and Rick had decided that they were going to have a relaxing day that day because the next day they were going to try to take over the school. So when Emerson climbed into the car Daryl was still there, waiting for her. He was sitting in the backseat which was strange, the backseat had almost exclusively belonged to Matt. "He's hangin' out with Carl and Lori and their car," Daryl explained when he caught on to Emerson's worried look. "Playin' monopoly the last time I checked. Figured after keepin' watch all night ya could use a break."

"Yeah," Emerson said with a nod as she climbed into the back seat and cuddled next to Daryl. "You didn't flinch," she pointed out softly when the man wrapped his arm around her and drew her closer to him without a moment's hesitation. "That's new for you."

"Ayuh," Daryl said with a nod. "I'm gettin' pretty used to ya needin' to snuggle, Em. Just took some time."

"Me needing to cuddle?" Emerson asked, her eyebrows raised and a smile on her face. "I'm pretty sure you're the one that often feels the need to cuddle, Mister Dixon." Daryl shrugged and Emerson's smile softened into a look a pure contentment. "Thank you," she said softly. "I needed this. After all that's gone on recently ... I needed this."

"I'm pretty good at relievin' stress," Daryl said with a nod as he leaned forward so that he could press a kiss onto Emerson's forehead.

"The best," Emerson murmured. "Except for cigarettes of course. But we have to use those sparingly. I can cuddle with you any time I want." She heard Daryl's grunt of disapproval and she glanced up at him, a playful pout resting on her lips. "Anytime I want," she said, the pout remained in place until Daryl nodded. She smiled at him then, "Good."

Daryl was quiet after that. He waited until Emerson had fallen asleep before he sat up on the car seat. There was another reason he had waited for Emerson in the car. She still wouldn't let him look at her knee. He knew for a fact that she was going to want to help clear the school of Walkers the next day. He knew that there was nothing he could do to stop her either. But if she was going to help then he was at least going to know how badly she was already injured. She grumbled a bit when he pulled away from her, but she didn't wake up until he had begun to roll her pant leg up. "What are you doing, Dare?" she asked him, her voice sleepy as she watched him with tired eyes.

"Ya won' let me look at yer leg," Daryl said with a grunt as he continued to roll her pant leg up toward her knee. "I told ya about my scars. I deserve to see how injured you are."

"Those aren't exactly the same things," Emerson said softly, but she didn't fight him on the topic. "Your injuries were much worse than mine ever will be. But all the same, I would never try to tell you that you couldn't help the group because of your injuries. You're going to take one look at my knee and tell me I have to stay in the car tomorrow."

"Ya probably should," Daryl growled, he had finally gotten her pants rolled up over her knee and the look of her leg made him wince. It had been five days since she had knocked her kneecap out of place and the bruise hadn't even begun to fade. "Christ, Em," Daryl whispered as he looked at her knee.

"It's not as bad as it looks," Emerson cautioned.

"Really?" Daryl asked, reaching out and gently placing his hand on her bruise covered skin. "Because it looks pretty fuckin' bad, Emerson." There were bruises all over her leg, big angry black and purple ones that started about midway up her shin and ended high up on her thigh. He winced just looking at it. "I don' even know how yer walkin' on it right now," he said. "Let alone runnin' or killin' Walkers."

Emerson shook her head and reached down to roll her pants back down. "It's fine," she reassured him. "Just stiff. I can barely feel the bruises as long as no one touches my leg. It just gets stiff if I've been walking on it for too long or sitting on it for too long. And stiff isn't that bad, I can handle that."

"Ya don' have to be so tough," Daryl said, shaking his head as he helped her roll down her pant leg. "Ya can let someone else take care of ya every once in a while." Emerson shook her head, silently arguing with him. She couldn't let someone else take care of her. "I take care of ya," Daryl pointed out. "Sometimes, when ya do somethin' stupid."

"I can't let you do it all of the time though," Emerson said softly. "I can barely handle it as it is." She glanced at Daryl her eyes wide, trying to get him to understand her. "I don't want to be that girl," she said softly. "That girl that everyone takes care of. I've never been that girl and I'm not going to start now. I've always been able to take care of myself and just because there are zombies wandering around now doesn't mean I'll let someone take care of me." She leaned forward and pressed a soft kiss to Daryl's cheek, she smiled sadly when he flinched at the action. "What did I tell you the first day we met."

"Lots of things," Daryl said with a shrug and a smile. "Ya had this big tough act goin' on that day. Said ya didn' need my help and I should just leave ya alone. Ya said ya didn' need -"

"I don't need you to be my Prince Charming," Emerson said with a nod and a smile. "I was never one of those girls who believed in that kind of fairy tale. I didn't like the idea of Prince Charming doing all the work. And I never wanted one. That hasn't changed. I'm still that same girl, just a bit more grown up."

"An' dirtier," Daryl joked, lifting his hand so he could wipe some dirt off her face.

"Like you're one to talk," Emerson smiled back as she swatted Daryl's hand away. "You're dirtier than me."

"Probably am," Daryl said with a nod. He smiled when Emerson yawned, "Ya should go to bed," he said, gently pushing Emerson back until she was laying down again. "Can't have ya tired an' yawnin' tomorrow," he said softly. "We've got some Walkers to kill."

Emerson grinned up at him, "Yeah?" she asked him. Daryl nodded. Her grin got even wider, "We?" she asked, biting her lip in anticipation of Daryl's answer. "Me included?" she asked before she resumed worrying her lip between her teeth.

"Yes," Daryl said, reaching out so that he could pull Emerson's lip free from her teeth. "Yer included."

-.-.-.-.-

Emerson slept for most of the day. She forced herself awake in the early afternoon to help make preparations for dinner, Rick wanted everyone to eat a good, hearty dinner so that they would have their full strength the next day. They had quite a bit of meat from Daryl's hunting trips and various types of canned vegetables. They were beginning to run low on the canned goods though, that made Emerson nervous. They would have to make a run soon, someone would have to head into town and try to raid the local grocery store. One look at Daryl and she knew he probably wouldn't let her go. And after the trouble and worry she had caused when going home with Matt she wasn't about to pick a fight over this. If when the time came to make a run Daryl said that he didn't want her to go she'd stay. It wasn't much, but it would be her way to apologize to him for her stupid decisions that she had been making recently.

Once the dinner was cooked and everyone was sitting around the fire eating Rick brought up the subject of how they were going to begin to take over the school. Emerson felt Matt tense beside her, he didn't like the idea of his sister fighting off Walkers again, she reached out and wrapped her arm around his shoulders, pulling him closer to her. "It's okay, huh buddy?" she asked him, her voice falsely cheerful. "You get worried every time I go out and deal with Walkers. But I always come back, don't I?" Matt nodded, his lip trembling, she did always come back. She smiled at him and leaned forward, kissing the tip of his nose, "And this time will be no different," she said. "I'll always come back to you. Always." And then, with her arm still wrapped around her brother's shoulders she turned back to Rick, nodding silently to tell him that she was ready to hear his plan.

"We can't do what we did last time," Rick said, nodding at Emerson. "The fence surrounding the school and the buildings is too big. There's no way we can have people posted on the wall and only send four people into the school to take care of the Walkers. We don't know how many there are, we don't know where they are. They'll be in the buildings and on the ground. I think the best thing we can do is to start by thinning the herd a bit. Lure some of them away from the pack and kill them off that way in smaller groups?"

"Thin the herd?" Emerson asked, trying to understand what Rick was suggesting.

"Lure some of them away?" Carol asked. "Away where?"

"Out here," Daryl said softly, catching on to Rick's plan. "Lure a smaller group of them out here, close the gates again, kill the Walkers. Redo it. Kill them in stages." Rick nodded, silently telling Daryl that he was on the right page. Daryl nodded thoughtfully, he glanced at Glenn who shrugged and looked hopeful. "It could work," he said.

"And where are we going to be when you lure a _small_ group of Walkers into the car lot?" Lori asked, her voice tense and slightly angry as she drew Carl closer to her. "I was forced to be alright with Carl helping you out when he was on top of the wall. But it doesn't sound like anyone's going to be on the wall this time. So where are we going to be? The baby? Beth? Hershel? Matt? And the dog? Are you going to just group us in the back corner of the lot and hope you kill all the Walkers before they get to us? Think about this Rick? Think about your family? How are you going to protect us?"

"They could go back outside the lot again?" Maggie suggested. "Like last time." Rick quickly vetoed that plan.

"They were outside the lot with a car so that they could escape if shit hit the fan," he said. "We have a safe car lot now. And no one will be on the wall to play lookout. We'll need most of the weapons in here. They'd be sitting ducks outside with no way to protect themselves. I won't risk it."

"They could stay in a car," Emerson said softly. "With tinted windows, down on the floor. We could use a deer or two, placed far away from the car to lure any Walkers that make it past us away from their car. As we kill more and more of the Walkers we can pile the bodies in front of the car, that should block any of their living smell, act as a buffer. And let's be honest, unless something goes terribly wrong not many of them are going to get past us. Not if most of us are out there, fighting them."

"Are you willing to bet Matt's life on that?" Lori asked, her voice still tense and angry but turned on Emerson now.

Emerson glanced at Daryl, silently asking him if he thought that she could. He glanced at her for a moment before he nodded his head. She turned to look at Lori and nodded, "Yes," she said, hugging Matt closer to her. "I would."

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Author's Note:  
I officially love babies. They're so cute. Can I have one?  
Doll face still doesn't have a name. But she's the most beautiful girl in the world.  
I can't believe she came from my brother and his wife ... she's much prettier than they are.  
(Just kidding, the bro's sitting on the couch reading over my shoulder right now, threw that in for his benefit.)  
Anyway, I hope that you guys liked this chapter!  
Thanks for stopping by to read it and for waiting so patiently. Special thanks goes to: _starbright37, Monarch Meagan, You' . , _and _Michelle Andolini_ who added this story to their favorite's list. And to: _Ally321, BubbleGumEcstasy, ah0mine, sirigirl157, starbright37, CrashkiddX, FortitudoPhoenixo, You' . liontaming, IrishPixy, Lilone1776, mischieflover, _and _Michelle Andolini_ for adding this story to their alerts list.  
But of course the **BIGGEST** of all thank you's goes to those of you that **reviewed** on the last chapter!  
**mrskaz453:** Thank you! I kind of love the little munchkin! I'm glad that you liked the last chapter and I hope that you liked this one too! Yeah Jackson's loosely based on Shane. Cause let's be honest, if there was an actual zombie apocalypse most of us would turn out like Shane. There'd be those one or two people that you honestly cared about and would take care of, but most people we wouldn't give a damn about. It's kind of how human nature works which is something I really like. Thank you so much for your review!  
**MagicalElf73: **Haha. I told my brother I was going to punt his baby like a football. He didn't appreciate it that much. But I have called her Lil' ass kicker, and on occasion Norman. Because I'm weird like that. Anyway, I've had my family time and now I'm back to my "greedy readers" :D I missed you guys!  
**Gaby de Brabant: **Thank you! Can we start a club? The godmother club. I've only been a godmother for a few days and I love it! I also want to kidnap doll face and let her live with me but I'd never get any work done. I'm glad you liked the last chapter and I hope that you liked this one too. (Hopefully I didn't make you cry in this one ... though I don't think you're stupid at all for crying ... I like it!) Thank you so much for your review!  
**JerZeeSkyLine**: Thank you so much for your review! I'm glad that you're still enjoying the story and I hope that you liked this chapter as well! I hope I didn't make you wait too long for this update!  
p.s. I got your message on tumblr! And I wrote the chapter with Walker you this morning! Look for it soon! :D  
**Kmonty13**: Hello! I'm so glad that you love this story and I hope that you liked this chapter as well! Welcome to the Walking Dead fandom and the Daryl Dixon fan club - we're pitbulls in skirts, I'm not even kidding. I inspired you to start watching the series? Woah! Thank you for telling me! I love that. How do you like it so far? Are you obsessed yet?  
**Readergirl66:** Thank you! For both your congratulations and your review. Yes everything went smoothly. I'm so glad that you liked the last chapter and I hope that you liked this one too. I plan for more of Daryl opening up soon. I have some plans ... mwahahahahaha. (Okay... that made my plans sound more evil than they really are...)  
**JDMlvr1**: Thank you for your review and your well wishes. Everything went great and I'm so glad that you liked the last chapter. Fingers crossed that you liked this one as well.  
**ResidentGoth:** I can't give away what's going to happen with the Governor. I can tell you one thing ... in my story Merle might not be with him. Maybe ... maybe not. I have plans (mwahahahaha ... I really need to stop laughing like that).  
And thank you! I'm so glad someone's finally said something about his dialect. It's been driving me crazy! I promise, promise, promise you that I did not mean to insult you or anyone from the south. I have family in Georgia, I know you guys don't talk that way. But at the same time, Daryl's from the mountains so I thought I needed a way to differentiate between the people from normal Georgia and mountain Daryl. But I can stop now! Give it three more chapters and he'll start talking like a normal person (I'm too lazy to go through and change it in the chapters I've already written.)  
And you're more than welcome for not crushing your ship dear!  
**sparklekirs39**: Thank you for another fabulous review! I'm so glad that you liked the last chapter. And you have no idea how many times I watched and rewatched that scene from Chupacabra because I was trying to figure out how to go about making Daryl open up about his past. Like, I knew from the beginning that Emerson wasn't going to make a big deal about it or it would make Daryl close up. But I wasn't sure if I had done a good job with it. So thank you. And you're more than welcome for my apparent creativity.  
**starbright37: **Thank you so much for your review! I'm glad that you love the story and I hope that you liked this one too! I hope that I didn't make you wait too long for this update.  
**DBugMom: **Was it a really long two days? I'm sorry if it was. And I'm sorry that it took me so long this morning to get my chapter out. I slept late and blame the baby! Plus these reviews are taking me forever! You guys are so supportive, and it takes me almost an hour to respond to all over your reviews! I love it though! I hope that you liked this last chapter. And as always, I send a big thanks your way for your review!  
**SilverAdvenger12: **Thank you so much for your review! I'm glad that you liked the last chapter and I hope that you liked this one as well! I'm glad you liked the romance. There should be more of that soon!  
**FanFicGirl10: **I love your review, love it sooooo much! :p Thank you! I'm glad that you liked the last chapter and I sincerely hope you liked this one as well! And I can't even pretend that I'm surprised that you didn't trust Jackson. No one did. Poor guy.  
**You' . : **Well aren't you sweet. I'm so glad that you think the story and the plot line (and me!) are amazing! Thank you for that. You made me blush. And I'm happy that I could provide you with this story - you sure know how to spoil a writer - "by far the best story you've read in a while"? Thank you! I hope that you liked this chapter as well!  
**biancastefani: **Hello again! I was wondering where you had gone off to! Thank you for taking the time to review my story! And I'm so glad that you still like it! You're the second person to compare Jackson to Shane... good job, he's kind of who I was basing him off of. Emerson and Daryl are your OTP? I squealed at that bit of information!  
And agreed. Carol's totally going to kick ass!  
**FortitudeoPhoenixo: **Oh! New reviewer! Hello! Thank you so much for your review! I'm so happy that you like the story and I hope you loved this chapter as well!  
**0netflixme0: **Glad you love it! Thank you for your review. And no ... there is no way Carol's going all love crazy for Daryl. In this story they're just friends.  
**mina90: **Hello! I'm so glad that you like the story even though you don't totally understand every word! Thank you for reading anyway! And you're German? I've been to Germany a few times? Where are you from?  
**darknessgurl19: **Thank you for your review! I'm so glad that you liked the last chapter and I hope that you liked this one as well! I agree, by the way, Daryl's pretty amazing.  
**DancingUnderMoonlight18: **Oh darling! Don't worry if I don't update for a few days! I'll never leave you hanging. If I disappear I'll always warn you guys and then I'll come back! Thank you for the congratulations by the way! I'm so excited about this little munchkin! And I'm glad that you liked the last chapter. Hopefully you liked this one as well.  
p.s. yes. that's how you spell erks :p and no you might not be crazy. :p  
And that's all I've got for now. Thank you for your patience my wonderful readers! You're amazing!  
Until tomorrow, happy reading!  
Hugs and kisses,  
Chloe Jane.


	26. Chapter Twenty-Five

Disclaimer: I do not own the Walking Dead, although I'm completely obsessed with it and wished I did. Emerson, however, I do own.

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Check out my tumblr: MissChloeJane.  
I post spoilers. :D (amongst other things.)

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Who's super excited about WD tonight?  
This girl right here!  
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Chapter Twenty-Five:

The group was up and working early the next morning. They weren't sure how well the Walkers could see in the dark versus the daylight, but they wanted those who would be hiding in the SUV to be in there before the sun rose and the Walkers had a clear view of the group and what they were doing. Emerson forced a soft smile on her face as she pressed a breakfast bar into her brother's hand, "You okay?" she asked Matt, he had been very quiet and sullen since she woke him up. Matt nodded and then he shook his head. Emerson smiled at him, "Well which is it, little man?" she asked him, trying to keep her tone light and happy.

"Don't fight the Walkers today, Emmy," Matt whispered, his eyes darting toward the iron gate that separated the group from the Walkers in the school. "Sit this one out with me. Stay in the SUV. Read Harry Potter to me and Carl. Please? Don't fight them."

Emerson sighed, and knelt down on the ground so that she was level with Matt. "I can't Matty," she whispered. "I have to fight the Walkers. I have to do everything I can to make sure that you're safe. That's what I do. It's what I've always done. I'm your big sister. Killing the monsters under the bed is kind of in my job description."

"But these aren't monsters under my bed," Matt pointed out, voicing wisdom beyond his years. "These are real monsters, Emmy. They're real monsters that could kill you. They almost did last time. What if they get it right this time? Please stay in the car with me?"

Emerson was having trouble finding a way to make sense to her brother. She couldn't think of a way to explain that she needed to help kill the Walkers. That it was almost a personal vendetta for her, as though with each Walker she killed she was able to ensure that Matt was just that more likely to survive in this world. She glanced at her brother and shook her head, she was also having trouble saying no to the look on his face and the worry in his voice. "Yer sister's gonna be fine," Daryl's voice sounded over Emerson's shoulder. She turned her head to see Daryl looking down at Matt with a soft look in his eyes. "Don' ya worry none about that."

"How do you know though?" Matt asked his voice still worried, but his face had lost some of its tense, worried look. "How do you know Daryl?"

"Because I'll be watchin' for her," Daryl said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Emerson smiled up at the brunette man, he surprised her whenever he was gentle with Matt, it was hard to believe that the gentle man existed inside his rough and dirty exterior. "Do ya trust me?" Daryl asked her brother. Matt nodded and told him that he did trust him. Daryl nodded, "Then ya know yer sister's gonna be just fine. Don' worry about her."

Emerson nodded, unexplained tears springing to her eyes as she glanced between the two men in her life. She turned fully toward Matt, "You see?" she asked him, reaching her hands out so that she could straighten out the collar of his too-dirty t-shirt. "Daryl's going to take care of me. And I'm going to take care of him. And then tonight we're both going to be okay and come back to you. There's nothing you need to worry about, okay?" Matt nodded and Emerson smiled at him as she drew him closer to her so that she could give him one more kiss. He asked her if she would sing him the lullaby. "Right now?" she asked him, nodding to let him know that she would sing the song to him.

"Yeah," Matt said with a nod. "And later. When you're fighting the Walkers. Rick says that we'll have the windows cracked open a bit. I'll be able to hear you singing through the cracks. Will you sing the song then? So I know that you're okay?"

And of course there was no way that Emerson could say no to that. She gave Matt one final kiss, "Of course, Baby," she promised before she wrapped her brother up in her arms and sang him the lullaby before she put him in the car and shut the door behind him. "That was harder than I thought it would be," she said to Daryl as she walked toward him, he had moved back a bit when she was singing to Matt to give them some privacy. "I thought it would get easier as he gets older, but it's still hard to leave him, harder maybe."

"Yer really good with him," Daryl pointed out as they made their way toward the group that was going to fight the Walkers.

"So are you," Emerson said with a grin. "You really are."

"Okay," Rick said, clapping his hands together and addressing the group once Daryl and Emerson were within hearing range. "We're not putting anyone on the wall this time so that means we need to pair up. Now there's an odd number of us, I'll be on my own. Everyone else gets a partner. You stick by that partner, watch their back. Don't let anything happen to them. We can't afford to lose anyone now." Every one nodded at Rick's warning and they began to pair off. Emerson smiled softly when she felt Daryl move closer to her, he stood directly behind her with his chest brushing against her back. Rick nodded when he saw that everyone was in pairs. "Now, Daryl and T-Dog are going to open the gates and let some of the Walkers through. Carol and Maggie you'll provide," he paused and his lips twisted into a grim smile, "crowd control," he said, a rueful twist of his lips. "You'll make sure nothing gets T or Daryl and when I say to close the gates they will. We'll go after the Walkers that came through, shouldn't be more than fifteen at a time. Move them toward the car and then we'll do it again."

"I'm not sure if I'm comfortable with you not having a partner, Rick," Emerson spoke up softly. She had no other problems with the plan, but she didn't like thinking that he would be on his own with no one watching his back. "What's going to happen if you've got no one watching your back?" she asked her tone and face worried.

Rick smiled at her concern and picked up an axe from the ground. "I think I'll be okay, Em," he said, spinning the axe in his hand. "But if you're that worried about me then everyone will have to keep an eye out for me. Does that make you feel any better?" Emerson nodded, it did make her feel a bit better. Rick nodded at her and smiled at her concern before he was back to business. "Okay," he said with a nod at the group. "It's almost dawn. I'll give you guys about five minutes to get ready before we start. Go do whatever you need to do and meet back here when I whistle."

The redhead didn't really have anything she needed to do to get ready. She had her knives in her belt around her waist, she had her combat boots on. As far as she was concerned she was ready for the fight. She planned on standing in front of the gate and waiting for the rest of the group, but Daryl had a different plan for her it seemed. He grabbed her wrist and pulled her away from the gates, toward the corner of the car lot. "We're goin' to be fine," Daryl told her once they got there. "Fifteen Walkers. That's nothin' ya've handled worse than that before. An' Lord knows I have. Everything's gonna be fine."

Emerson smiled at him and shook her head, "I'm not worried about it, Daryl," she said softly. "I mean, I am. You'd be stupid not to be worried about these things. But you're in there with me, I trust you. We're going to be fine. I'm not worried about that." Her eyes left Daryl's so that they could scan the yard, lighting on Maggie and Glenn, T-Dog, Carol, and Rick. "I'm worried about the others though," she whispered, biting down on her bottom lip. "I don't know, it just, I have this feeling in the pit of my stomach like something's going to go wrong. It's just nerves, I got like this when we took over the car lot too. I know we'll be fine, I just wish I felt that certain about everyone else, you know?"

"We're all gonna be fine," Daryl reassured her, lifting his hand so that he could place it on her cheek and turn her head back toward him. "We're all gonna be fine, trust me." Emerson nodded and stood up on her tip toes so that she could press a kiss onto Daryl's cheek, he was right - they were all going to be fine. The man growled when she pulled away from him. "That's all I get woman?" he asked her, his tone almost playful.

She grinned at him, "That's all you get until tonight," she promised softly. She was about to say something else, she wasn't sure what, but she felt as though something else needed to be said, but Rick whistled and was signaling that the group should get back to the iron gates.

"Here," Daryl said, shoving a hand gun into Emerson's hands. "I know ya think yer not as good with a gun as some people, but I'd feel better knowin' that ya had one just in case. Though I don' know how a soldier who was in Iraq an' Afghanistan wouldn' be quite sure of her shootin' abilities."

"Medic," Emerson said, raising her hand in defense. "I didn't really need a gun in my line of work over there. I was usually repairing the damage done by guns instead."

Daryl nodded, but he didn't smile. He was preparing to fight the Walkers. Emerson had felt the need to joke, to alleviate some of the tense worry she felt about facing the zombies. Daryl didn't need to joke, didn't want to. He was serious now. She asked him if he was okay. He nodded again and turned to look at her, "Just promise me ya won't do anything stupid. That yer goin' to listen to me. Got it?"

Emerson nodded and held her pinky up to him, "Pinky promise," she said softly before they both went to their places to prepare to fight the Walkers.

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The first few rounds of Walkers went down without a hitch. They were crowded against the gate so it was fairly easy to let fifteen through and close the gate before they started to kill the Walkers. Once they were done killing the Walkers they would move the bodies toward the SUV where Lori, Carl, Matt, Hershel, and Beth were hiding. They piled the bodies in front of the car to hide the smell of the living people and moved back to the gates to prepare for another round of Walkers. The whole time they fought the Walkers Daryl could hear Emerson's voice over the noise of the guns and the Walkers singing to Matt, letting him know that she was okay. "_How very special are we, for just a moment to be, part of life's eternal rhyme?_"

It was during the fifth round of Walkers that they started to face trouble. There wasn't a crowd of Walkers in front of the gate anymore. They had to leave the gates open for longer than they usually did. And then, before they knew what was happening a large stampede of Walkers came out from behind one of the school buildings and rushed at the group. "Shut the gate!" Rick had bellowed, but there was no time, the Walkers were coming through the gate too quickly for Daryl and T-Dog to shut them.

"There's too many!" Daryl yelled. "We'll have to wait!" That worried Emerson, they had been doing fine when they could follow the plan. But they couldn't follow the plan anymore, there was no way to do that. It was chaos and she wasn't sure if they were going to be able to make it through it this time. She turned her head to the side, silently seeking out Daryl, he nodded at her. "It's gonna be fine, Em," he told her.

And then suddenly it was. "Like hell it's too late to close the gate!" she yelled, glancing to her sides to make sure that she had back up before she ran toward one of the gates so that she could shut it. T-Dog and Daryl followed close behind her while Glenn, Maggie, and Rick took care of the second gate. With the work of the six of them they managed to close the gate and chain it shut before any more Walkers could make it through. But when they turned around there were more Walkers than they had anticipated in the car lot, at least thirty of them. "Nothing we can't handle, right guys?" Emerson asked, glancing between her friends.

"We saw worse when we first emptied the car lot," Glenn said with a nod, "and there were places for them to hide then."

"See," Emerson said, pulling a knife out of her belt so that she was holding one in each hand. "This is nothing. Let's go."

"Stick with your pairs!" Rick warned as the group began to separate and head in opposite directions. Emerson and Daryl moved to the crowd surrounding the dead deer they had left as bait; Rick, Glenn, and Maggie stayed near the gate, killing Walkers beyond the gate as well as ones inside the car lot; Carol and T-Dog were in the middle of the field, killing any Walkers that made it past Rick's group. It seemed like a fairly good plan, Emerson couldn't have thought of a better way to deal with the Walkers that were spreading out across the field.

"To yer left," Daryl grunted, Emerson nodded and him and swung her arm left, jamming her knife into the forehead of a Walker that had been trying to sneak up on her before it could even try to grab her.

"This is easier with you on the ground," Emerson pointed out as she yanked the knife out of the Walker and shoved its body onto another Walker, delaying it long enough so that she could get a better grip on her knife and throw it at the creature. "You don't seem as worried as you did last time we were fighting Walkers," she pointed out.

"Yeah, well last time ya were almost bitten," Daryl pointed out as he leveled his crossbow and shot a Walker in the head that was trying to attack Rick. The leader of the group looked up and nodded his thanks to Daryl. "This time I know for a fact yer not gettin' grabbed. I won' let it happen."

Emerson was about to joke with him, her way of letting off steam, something about how he shouldn't talk like that or a girl could think he was in love with her. But when she opened her mouth the joke died on her lips, because across the field the door to the SUV opened up and Carl jumped out of it, the young boy quickly climbing across the Walker bodies to get to the open field. "Carl!" she yelled at him, hoping that he could hear her. "Stay in the car!" But if the boy could hear her he didn't listen to her. "Is the boy deaf?" Emerson asked Daryl angrily as she started to run toward the boy so that she could put him back in the car herself.

"Don'!" Daryl told her, grabbing her arm to keep her still. "Carol's got him, see?" He was right, when Emerson looked up again she could see Carol running toward the young boy, she was closer than Emerson was anyway. She would get to him first. "He'll be fine," Daryl said with a nod before he turned back to the feeding frenzy around the dead deer. "We gotta get these sons of bitches before they decide the deer isn't as good as they thought."

Emerson nodded and turned away from Carol and Carl so that she could kill a couple more Walkers, they were so focused on the bloody deer, even though there was definitely not enough to go around that they didn't seem to notice Daryl or Emerson until it was too late and the two were killing them. It was a fairly easy job and for that Emerson was thankful. She had been worried when more Walkers than usual came through the gate that they were going to have a big problem on there hands, but everything was still going - a scream interrupted her thought. Emerson looked up from the Walker she had been about to pull her knife out of to see Carol struggling with a Walker.

Everything seemed to slow down, she couldn't find Carl, where was the kid? All she could see was Carol and the Walker. The Walker wasn't that tall, medium height maybe, and wearing a tattered skirt, the thing that really stood out about the Walker was its now faded pink hair. Emerson had never seen a Walker with pink hair before. Carol had lost her gun, Emerson could see it lying on the ground maybe three feet from where the struggle was happening. Carol couldn't reach it because she was using both her hands to hold the Walker off of her as the female Walker snapped her jaws, looking for flesh to bite. Rick, Glenn, and Maggie were having enough trouble by the gate that they hadn't noticed it yet. T-Dog was struggling with a few Walkers, he couldn't get to Carol. The Walker grabbed Carol's forearm and squeezed, digging its fingers into her skin she screamed again. Emerson pulled her gun out of its holster so that she could shoot the thing, but Daryl stopped her.

"Yer gonna shoot Carol too, if ya do that," he warned. "This is a close range job."

Emerson nodded, "Go," she said. Daryl hesitated for a moment, worried about leaving her alone. Rick had said that they needed to stick with their partners. Emerson shook her head and forcefully pushed the man toward Carol. "She's gonna die," she warned. "Go. I can take care of myself for a few minutes." Another pain filled scream from Carol was all Daryl needed before he took off running for her.

He pulled an arrow out of his cross bow sheath and rushed towards where the woman was still struggling with the Walker. "Watch out Carol," he warned, his voice tense before he drove the arrow through the back of the Walker's head. The Walker fell limply on top of Carol. Daryl quickly shoved the dead Walker off of Carol and helped her stand. "Were ya bit?" he asked the small woman.

Carol shook her head, "Just grabbed."

"Where's Carl?" Daryl asked, looking around for the kid. He didn't want to have to be the one to tell Rick that his son had been killed by a Walker when he was supposed to be hidden safely in the car. Carol told him he was back in the car. Daryl nodded, "Ya go in there too. Hershel can stitch up yer arm. Em's too busy right now."

"I can still fight," Carol argued as she bent down to pick up her gun. "You only need one hand to hold a handgun, Daryl Dixon."

Daryl shook his head, "With an open wound like that yer just askin' to be Walker bait. Get in the car woman."

"Is she okay?" Emerson asked once Daryl made it back to her and the dwindling group of Walkers around the deer. She hadn't been kidding when she told Daryl that she could handle herself and the Walkers for a while. She had done a lot of work. Daryl nodded and told her that both Carol and Carl were safely in the car. "What was Carl doing outside?" Emerson asked, turning to glare in the direction of the people filled SUV. "Rick told him to stay in the car. Lori told him to stay in the car. What was he doing?"

"With that kid?" Daryl asked with a shrug. "No one knows."

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Author's Note:  
Well hello there, welcome back.  
I hope you enjoyed this chapter! (Let me know!)  
Thank you for stopping by and reading this chapter. As always special thanks goes to: _CrystalJadee, Michelle Andolini, . .Me, martysgirl26, _and _rozaxxx_ who added this story to their Favorites List. And to: _liontaming, moonquirk, CrashkiddX, IrishPixy. Lilone1776, mischieflover, CrystalJadee, Hypnotist, Michelle Andolini, RainbowShelby, . .Me_, and _summerlover1_ who added this story to their Alerts List.  
But as always the **BIGGEST** of special thanks goes to those who **REVIEWED** on the last chapter:  
**DancingUnderMoonlight18: **I love Maggie. So much. Pretty sure that if a zombie apocalypse actually happened I would turn out something like Maggie. So of course she needed a bigger role. She's gonna keep popping up I think. And yeah, favorite characters are kind of a horrible thing in a show that's all about how everyone on earth is going to die, but I can't blame you ... I have too many favorites too. I hope you liked this chapter dear! I'll see you back here tomorrow!  
**piratejessieswaby: **She kind of is. But in her defense she's just looking out for her family.  
**Readergirl66: **I'm so glad that you liked the last chapter and I hope that this one was equally as awesome!  
**mischieflover: **Hello new reviewer! You read all the chapters in one night? You must be tired! But thank you for finding my story, reading it, and then reviewing it! I'm so glad that you're enjoying it. And I love that you called them, what was it? "The most adorable zombie apocalypse family ever" That made my day. And when something makes my day at eight in the morning I know it's going to be a good day. Yes, I do update pretty regularly with the exception of family visits or as you guys will soon learn holidays. But besides those, a new chapter comes out every day! So enjoy! I hope you liked this chapter by the way!  
**CrystalJadee: **Another new reviewer! I love this! Hello! You made an account just so that you could review and get alerts for_ this_ story? You have no idea how happy that makes me! I'm really really glad that you found this story and that even though you don't normally read WD fics you like it! (That means I'm a good writer, right? :p) I'm glad that you like Emerson, I was worried about introducing an OC into the series (too easy to make a Mary Sue and there's lots of Caryl love) but you guys have been really supportive of her which is great. You can get in line as far as people in love with my Daryl... I'm at the front. I want him in my life, it's a bit of a problem. And I'm a "fantastic writer"? - You sure know how to spoil a writer! Thank you.  
**FanFicGirl10: **Why all the Lori hate? :p She was just voicing an opinion that most mother's would voice in a situation like this. I think... I'm not a mother or in the middle of a zombie apocalypse so I'm not sure. I'm glad you liked the last chapter and I hope that you liked this one as well!  
**DBugMom: **Aww! You reread the last two chapters when I was gone! That's sweet! And don't worry, there will be some Emerson/Daryl mush in an upcoming chapter very soon. Probably by the time you get back from being out of town. Have a good trip! I will keep updating and I will see you back here when you get back!  
**SilverAdvenger12: **And as always, thank you for your review darling! I hope that you liked this chapter as well!  
**MagicalElf73: **There was impending action! I hope you enjoyed it! And yeah, I thought her plan was pretty solid too, made sense to me. Although having Walkers chew Lori's face might be a more solid plan. Kill two birds with one stone: kill Walkers, get rid of Lori - win/win really.  
They did luck out with that, because doll face is totally perfect punting size. :D  
And that's all I've got for now!  
Thanks for stopping by, guys.  
Until tomorrow, happy reading!  
Hugs and kisses,  
Chloe Jane.


	27. Chapter Twenty-Six

Disclaimer: I do not own the Walking Dead, although I'm completely obsessed with it and wished I did. Emerson, however, I do own.

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Check out my tumblr: MissChloeJane.  
I post spoilers. :D (amongst other things.)

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Holy shit! Last night's episode!  
What? I don't know how to comprehend what happened!  
Daryl! Poor Daryl.  
And Merle! Don't you dare think about hurting Maggie and Glenn. That will not be okay.

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Chapter Twenty-Six:

After Carol's accident Rick decided that the group should stop killing Walkers for the day. They quickly took care of the last of the Walkers that had gotten through the gate and then they started on the clean up effort. They weren't going to burn all the Walker bodies, some would need to be saved to pile up in front of the SUV tomorrow, but Rick decided that almost seventy-five per cent of them could be burned. While the group began to move the bodies Emerson picked up the deer that had been basically torn apart by Walkers, it would be no good for the next day, but if she threw it over the gates into the school area it might attract more Walkers to the gates so that they wouldn't have to leave them open for as long tomorrow only to be ambushed by a herd of the creatures. Rick saw her heading toward the gates with the deer carcass over her shoulder and nodded his approval at her plan. He moved forward to help her with the deer but she waved him off, "Go talk to Carl," she said to the older man. "Find out why he was out of the car."

A look of confused interest flitted across Rick's face. He hadn't noticed that Carl had gotten out of the SUV. But as Emerson's words sank in his face got angry. He turned away from the redhead and the deer and stalked toward the SUV. "Carl!" he bellowed. "Get out here now." Emerson flinched, she almost felt bad for the kid. She quickly made it over to the gate and heaved the deer over it, trying to ignore the thud and the crunching noise it made when it landed on the other side. Or the almost excited growl from a Walker on the other side. She quickly turned around before she'd have to watch them tear the deer apart further and headed toward where Carol was standing by the SUV, she was sure that Hershel would have stitched her up, but she wanted to check on her just to be sure.

She had made it most of the way to the SUV when she stepped on something that cracked underneath her foot. It wasn't the feeling itself that caught her attention, but the sound of breaking glass. She knelt down and picked up a pair of black framed glasses, the lenses now broken. She looked around and noticed that she had made it to the pink haired Walker that had attacked Carol. She reached out and gently turned the dead Walker over, brushing some of its pink hair out of its face so she could look at it. She was sure that when the woman was alive she was pretty, it was hard to see that now, what with the rotted flesh, cuts, and general dirtiness of the Walker, but she was pretty when she was alive, Emerson could tell that much. She reached out and put the glasses on the Walker's face, trying to picture her alive. She could see it, the glasses must have belonged to her. "What are ya doin'?" she heard Daryl ask from behind her.

Emerson turned in surprise and felt a guilty look settle across her face as she glanced at the older man. He was looking down at her as if he thought she was absolutely crazy. And maybe she was. She was being gentle to and almost caring about a dead Walker. A dead Walker who had tried to kill one of her friends. Maybe she had gone absolutely crazy. She shrugged, "She was alive once," Emerson said softly, gesturing toward the pink haired Walker. "Doesn't that bother you even a bit? She had a family, friends, maybe a little brother like me. She must have gone to school here - she had classes to worry about, grades and deadlines she needed to meet. Maybe a boyfriend. She had a life. And then this thing happened. And this is what she turned into. She fought, she managed to turn into a Walker even though she was bit," she gestured toward a large bite mark on the girl's leg. "She got away though. She must have been brave."

"Ya can't do this, Em," Daryl growled softly. He didn't look like he thought that she was crazy anymore. He looked like he felt bad for her. Like he was sympathetic, could almost understand where she was coming from. "Ya just can't do this. It makes it harder. Sure, they were people once. Ya can even feel a little bad for them. But not like this, ya can't wonder about them an' about who they were. Or yer gonna feel guilty every time ya kill one of them. They may have been alive an' human once, but they ain't anymore. Ya best remember that." Emerson must have been frowning because he leaned down so that he could cup her face in one of his hands. "Don' sympathize with the dead, Em," he said, his thumb caressing her face with a barely there touch, "it just makes livin' so much harder."

Emerson nodded and pulled her face out of his hand. "Right," she said, her tone curt and businesslike as she stood up. "Well I'm going to go check on Carol. Can you take care of this - this body?" she asked him, gesturing toward the pink haired Walker.

Daryl nodded, "Sure thing, ma'am" he said, tipping his head jokingly at her as if he had a hat on it. Emerson smiled at him briefly and nodded at him before she headed toward the SUV.

She was surprised to see that Hershel hadn't stitched Carol up yet. "Carol," she said as she approached the older woman. "You're still bleeding. Let me get my bag and we'll clean that out and stitch you up, okay?"

The woman shook her head, "I'm fine," she said. "Really. Hershel said that he'd do it as soon as you got here. He was waiting for you so that you could check on Lori. She's the reason Carl left the SUV during the fight. He was trying to get you and Rick."

Emerson didn't wait for anymore information, she brushed past the older woman and climbed into the SUV. She grabbed her medical bag out of the front seat before she climbed toward the back where Hershel was waiting for her with Lori. Nothing seemed wrong with the woman at the moment, she was sitting up and drinking a bottle of water, talking to Hershel. "What's up, Doc?" Emerson asked the older man as she sat down in the seat in front of the two.

"I should be asking you that," Hershel said with a smile before he pointed toward Lori. "While your group was outside she fainted. I know how to do surgeries, but as far as human pregnancies go, I'm at a complete loss." Emerson nodded, she probably wouldn't be much more help than Hershel. Pregnancy was one of the few things that Emerson had never really had to deal with when she was overseas. There weren't that many pregnant soldiers in Afghanistan or Iraq. But she had dealt with a few pregnant middle eastern women when she was over there. She asked Hershel how long Lori had been unconscious for. "About ten minutes, I would say." Hershel said with a nod.

Lori noticed the worried look that crossed over Emerson's face before she could hide it. "What?" the woman asked. "Is something wrong with my baby? Is it something that you can fix? Emerson you have to help my baby."

"Shh," Emerson said, reaching out and gently brushing some hair from Lori's eyes. "Lori you need to calm down. The last thing you need is to hyperventilate and faint again. Calm down, breathe deep. We're going to try to figure out what's going on here, okay?" Lori nodded and Emerson reached into her bag to pull out the penlight. Lori asked what that was for as Emerson shined the light in her eyes. "The big worry when you pass out is how long you've been unconscious," Emerson answered, keeping her voice as calm as possible so that she wouldn't scare Lori. "When I went through training we were taught that the magic number was fifteen. If you've been unconscious for fifteen minutes or more we'd need to be worried about trauma to your brain, damage. One of the easiest ways to check, and without any equipment - the only way I can check, for brain damage is to check pupil response to light. If there's been brain or nerve damage your pupils won't constrict or react to the light." Emerson pulled away and nodded as she put the penlight back in the bag. "But you don't have to worry about that, pupils are good."

"Then what happened?" Lori asked as Emerson pulled a stethoscope out of her bag. "Why did I faint? Is my baby okay?"

"I would kill for an ultrasound machine," Emerson whispered to Hershel before turning back to Lori. "I'm going to check for your baby's heart beat now," she said. "You're far enough along that I should be able to hear it with this." She felt along Lori's stomach until she felt a part of it that was firmer than the rest of the stomach, hopefully it was the baby's back. She put the end of the stethoscope there, "Breathe in deep," she commanded, "good. And exhale. Again." A moment later she pulled away and put the stethoscope away, "It's faint," she said, a worried look to her face. "But it's definitely there."

"Then what's wrong?" Lori asked, getting frustrated. She was glad that her baby was relatively healthy all things considered, but she wanted to know why she had passed out. "Why did I faint? That never happened to me with Carl. What's wrong?"

"You weren't unconscious for fifteen minutes or more," Emerson said softly, more to herself than to Lori as she went through all the possible problems. "Did your bladder release when you fainted?" she asked Lori. The woman shook her head. "Good. Any disorientation when you came to? Weakness in the limbs or total numbness? Abnormal body movements?" Again Lori shook her head. "That's god. Means you don't have a seizure disorder or a tumor," Emerson explained. "Let's see," she paused, "was the fainting preceded by shortness of breath? Light-headedness? Chest pain? Or a fast heartbeat?"

Lori started to shake her head, but then she paused. "Shortness of breath," she said. "Possibly a fast heartbeat? Why? Is that bad? Is there something wrong?"

Emerson held her hands up in front of her in a silent warning that Lori needed to calm down. "Fainting during pregnancy can actually be quite normal. Not as much blood is getting to your heart which can mean that not as much blood is getting to your brain. This is usually temporary, so it's not a constant condition. The problem with the last things I asked you about is that they could hint toward a heart problem or a blood clot in your lungs. The problem with that is that I don't have the right equipment or they right kind of doctor to look for those things. Your heartbeat sounded normal when I listened to it, but I'm not sure. So you're going to take it even easier for the rest of the day than you take it usually. No stress. We're going to watch you. You're going to drink lots of fluids and if you need to stand up and move around you're going to do it slowly."

"This never happened with Carl," Lori repeated. "Why is this happening now?"

"Well," Emerson said, a smile slipping onto her lips. "Let's point out the obvious. You weren't underweight and malnourished with Carl. You also weren't in the middle of a zombie apocalypse watching your husband risk his life killing the things. If I had any money to bet, and if it was worth anything, I would bet that the reason you fainted could do with low blood sugar. And the reason you experience shortness of breath and an accelerated heart rate is because you were worried about Rick. But just in case I'm wrong you're still going to take it easy for the next few days, okay?" Lori nodded, Emerson smiled at her, "Good. I'll be back to check on you later, okay? Drink that water and we'll get you more."

Hershel followed her when she got out of the SUV. "Are you sure everything's okay with the baby?" he asked her as they walked toward where the group was still piling up Walker bodies to burn. "Everything's fine?" the older man pressed on when Emerson didn't answer him.

"I'm not sure," Emerson said softly, "There was a heartbeat, but it was slower than it should have been. What if the baby dies in the uterus?" Hershel looked confused, he didn't seem to catch on to Emerson's worry right away. Emerson sighed, "Daryl told me that Rick told you guys that we're all infected, that when we die we'll turn into one of those things, bit or not. That goes to reason that this baby is infected too. What if it dies inside her uterus. Will it turn into a Walker? What if it tries to bite her from the inside?" And then before Hershel could answer her question she went off on another tangent, "She had a C-section the first time. Chances are she'll need another one for this baby. Has anyone tried to prepare her, Rick, and Carl for the fact that she probably won't survive? With no equipment, machines, or pain relievers. She probably won't make it through the surgery. Does she know that? Do they?"

"We haven't discussed that yet," Hershel said softly. "I'm sure the mother has some sort of idea. But if she knows that she's not going to make it through she hasn't shared that with Rick or the boy yet."

Emerson nodded as she looked away from the old man and looked toward Rick and Carl who were working together to carry a Walker body toward the growing pile in the back corner of the car lot. "Someone's going to have that talk," she said softly. "Lori should do it, I don't want to be the one that has to tell Rick and Carl that their wife and mother is dead, but _hey! You have a new baby!_"

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Emerson was quiet for the rest of the day. She helped out with the jobs that needed to be done, but she wasn't her usual self. Everyone in the group could tell that. They asked Daryl what was wrong with her when she went to check on Lori after dinner. Daryl shrugged and tried to explain that she had gotten sentimental with a Walker. That she had actually felt bad for the thing. The group couldn't judge her, they had all been there. Rick and Glenn could still remember the Walker they had killed in Atlanta to get out of the store, everyone could remember Sophia and Hershel's barn of Walkers - he had even fed the Walkers in the barn, to keep them alive. They definitely couldn't blame the young girl for feeling sympathetic. As Daryl watched Emerson climb out of the SUV, a tense worried look on her face he couldn't help but wonder if there was something else wrong, if there was something else that Emerson was worried about that was making her act weird. As she approached the group around the fire she caught Daryl's eye and jerked her head toward the fence, silently telling him that she wanted him to follow her.

When Daryl caught up with her she was standing in front of the iron gate, shining her flashlight through the bars and staring at the Walkers that were trying to find anything edible left of the deer. "Are ya okay?" he asked the redhead. He stood next to her, close enough that she could feel his presence, but not close enough to actually touch her. He didn't look at her, knowing that the attention would make her feel uncomfortable, instead he stared straight ahead at the Walkers in front of them. Emerson didn't answer his question. He sighed, "What's wrong, Em?"

"One of them is going to die," Emerson said softly. For a moment Daryl thought that she was talking about the Walkers in front of them. He was about to tell her that with any luck they were all going to die, but before he could open his mouth Emerson started to talk again. "I've been trying to figure it out and there's no way to save both Lori and the baby. It's still early enough that we could kill the baby and maybe get it out of her before it could turn into a Walker and kill her from the inside out."

"Wait," Daryl said stopping her before she could continue. "Why's the baby gonna become a Walker?"

"Because if we're all infected that means the baby is too," Emerson said, shaking her head. "There's no way that that baby isn't infected. So if it dies, if we kill it - it will turn into a Walker, a little one that is inside Lori. The good news is that it won't have any teeth yet, so it probably couldn't bite her, just cause her pain." She still hadn't looked at Daryl, she was still staring straight ahead. "I haven't talked to Lori about this yet, but I doubt she'll be okay with killing the baby even if it means that we could keep her alive. The problem is that if we let her continue with the pregnancy she'll die during childbirth. There's no way she'll live through a C-section without any pain killers or equipment. So someone will have to take care of Lori and then we'll have a baby with no mother, no way to feed it. We'll have to start looking for baby formula on our runs. Because there's no way that I can see Lori making it through the birth. And if she somehow does - it would be a miracle, but she's too malnourished to be able to produce milk. We'd still need formula." She paused on her rant and finally turned to look at Daryl. "This is really bad."

"How do ya know all this?" Daryl asked her. He couldn't understand how Emerson had come to all these conclusions over the last few hours.

"Remember when I told you about my time with Darren's group?" Emerson asked him. She took Daryl's answering growl as a yes. "When I thought I was pregnant? I probably wouldn't have needed a C-section. I would have been able to go through a natural labor, but I was aware of the feeding concerns back then. Everything else just kind of hit me today when I was making sure that everything was okay with Lori. Hershel says that he thinks that Lori kind of knows, she just hasn't talked to Rick about it yet. But basically Lori's body is just an incubator right now, she's alive until the baby comes. But if we let her carry her pregnancy through to her third trimester - that's a death sentence for her. Once the baby is ready to come, if we don't deliver it they'll both die. If we deliver the baby, Lori will die. If we kill the baby now, cause an abortion, Lori will live but the baby will die. Those are our three choices, we've got nothing else. And we're running out of time to make the choice."

"It's not our choice to make," Daryl muttered. "That decision belongs to Lori. Ya can tell her what ya think. But in the end that choice belongs to her. An' Rick. Ya can't make them decide anything."

Emerson nodded. She knew that Daryl was right, but that didn't mean she liked it. She reached her hand out and gently laced her fingers through Daryl's. "Thank you," she whispered as she started to pull him away from the gates. She didn't like looking at the Walkers, they were just a reminder of what everyone in the group would become when they died. Daryl raised his eyebrows and asked her what she was thanking him for. "For trusting me this afternoon," Emerson continued. "For leaving me by myself to go save Carol. We both know that you would never have forgiven yourself if she died. And then you would start to blame me because if I hadn't been out on the field there wouldn't have been anything keeping you from saving Carol. I would have blamed me. And Rick's right, we can't afford to lose anyone else. The group is dwindling as it is. So thank you." Daryl nodded and leaned forward to press a kiss to the side of Emerson's temple. She smiled at the gesture, "You're sweeter than you want people to believe, Daryl Dixon," she whispered playfully before she started to run toward the group and the fire, giggling as Daryl chased after her.

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Author's Note:  
Hello darlings!  
Did you enjoy last night's episode? What about today's chapter? I hope so!  
Thank you for stopping by and reading!  
But special thanks to: _AngelOfTheNight7897, LookIntoHerEyes, Signora Ted, mischieflover, _and _rozaxxx_ who added this story to their favorites list. And to: _HeartyJessica, JetNova, Lillal, LookIntoHerEyes, Nova5621, Signora Ted, Phaedra13, Huzzah-94, _and _mangamak_ who added this story to their alerts list.  
And as always the **BIGGEST **of special thanks goes to those of you** REVIEWED **on the last chapter! Thank you!  
**Perminatly Lost In Thought: **Oh don't worry, I will. I have plans for Darren's group. **BIG** plans. :D  
**MagicalElf73: **hahaha I just had to throw in "Stay in the car, Carl!" Cause he never listens when they tell him to stay! I had to do it. I'm glad that you liked the last chapter and I hope that you liked this one too!  
**Mischieflover: **Awww, sometimes you forget that they're not on the show? That made my day! Sometimes I forget too, or rather I watch episodes and find myself imagining what Emerson and Matt would be doing in the episode. It's becoming a bit of a problem, really. No promises on Matt not turning out like Carl, they're friends, each other's only friends really. It's bound to rub off on Matty eventually. But maybe not. You're welcome for making your morning a good one. Thank you for reviewing and making my morning a good one. I hope you enjoyed this chapter too!  
**Gaby de Brabant: **Two reviews in one day! Thank you my dear! I'm glad that you liked the last two chapters and I hope you liked this one as well. There wasn't any fluff between Daryl and Emerson, but there will be some soon, I pinky promise. Yeah, Maggie's going to be playing a bigger role in this story the further I go I think because I love her to death and I think that when Maggie's not yelling at her for being stupid they could be really good friends, so that's probably what's going to happen. The conversation about the Hollywood Walkers stemmed to the fact that I wonder that ... if a zombie apocalypse actually happened ... would people save the famous people or would they turn into zombies too? What would make them more worth saving than normal people? You know? Depressing thought I guess. **Michelle Andolini: **I'm glad you liked the last chapter! I hope you liked this one as well. Thank you so much for your review!  
**Kay1104: **Hello dear! Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that you're a new reviewer! Thank you so much for your review! I hope you liked this chapter as well. :D  
**DancingUnderMoonlight18: **Well now you know why Carl ran out. I didn't have the kid do something stupid for absolutely no reason. I had plans. I'm glad you liked the last chapter and I hope that you liked this one as well! (I love the family too... they better not kill off anyone else from the group on the show... I will ... probably keep watching, but be very mad.)  
**AngelOfTheNight7897: **Aww thank you! Now you were on chapter two when you reviewed, have you made it to the most recent chapter yet? I hope so! Thank you for your review!  
**JetNova: **You spent the whole afternoon reading it? You have no idea how much I like hearing that. I don't know why, but I'm always surprised when someone says they read the whole thing in one day. I guess I expect them to get bored and take a break or something. But you didn't! I'm glad you like the story so far and I hope you liked this chapter too! Thank you so much for your review!  
**SilverAdvenger12: **Well I'm glad. :D And even though basically nothing happened in this chapter I hope you liked it as well. Thank you for your review!  
**FanFicGirl10: **It's okay, I was never really a fan of Lori either. I'm just trying to make sure that my hate for her doesn't shine through too much in this story. Trying to be fair and all. But I agree, she shouldn't be telling people how to raise their children. That's ridiculous. At least in the last chapter it turned out she had a reason for her bad parenting. I'm glad that you loved the last chapter and I hope that you enjoyed this one as well! :D  
**Signora Ted: **Another new reviewer! Hello! Welcome! You were reading until 4:48 am? Go to bed! The story still would have been here when you got back :p But I'm so glad that enjoyed the story enough to stay up late. And I'm so happy you like Emerson. She couldn't hate on Carol because I love Carol (as long as nothing happens between her and Daryl. I want them to be friends, nothing more. I'm a bit protective of him in that sense). And I think I did get your message on tumblr ... you wanted to be a Walker right?  
HE'S FOLLOWING YOU ON TWITTER? Oh my god! You are so lucky! I'd be like flailing around and freaking out right now. Although, then it would occur to me that he was following me and I'd be convinced that I'd have to be entertaining via tweet. And that would be worrisome. Yup, cause I think about things like that.  
Anyway! Sorry, I ramble too. I hope that you liked this chapter!  
**ResidentGoth: **Two reviews! Woot woot! Don't worry, definitely not judging you for being behind on the reviews! I'm just glad you're reviewing! I'm glad that you liked the last two chapters and I hope that you liked this chapter as well. (You will be happy to know that the next chapter I post ... the yer's and ya's will be gone!) By the way ... Carl does what he wants! I love that! I'm glad Carol's alive too although I don't ship her with Daryl so I don't know if I'm going to like it if they get together. Merle better not kill Maggie and Glenn though. I like him, but he better not.  
And that's all I've got for now! Thanks you guys!  
Until tomorrow, happy reading!  
Hugs and kisses,  
Chloe Jane.


	28. Chapter Twenty-Seven

Disclaimer: I do not own the Walking Dead, although I'm completely obsessed with it and wished I did. Emerson, however, I do own.

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Check out my tumblr: MissChloeJane.  
I post spoilers. :D (amongst other things.)

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**I'm so sorry, guys!**  
My only excuse for not updating yesterday is my boyfriend.  
He got leave for Thanksgiving and came here for his break.  
We were kind of busy yesterday until I had to go to work. So yeah.  
To make up for it I'm going to update **twice** today.  
Yes, twice ... once now an one this evening.  
But then I'm going to have to take a break for Thursday and Friday on account of the holiday.  
My family comes into town. Brothers, cousins, aunts and uncles.  
The house is crazy, there's a parade, the Pats football game, and our family touch football game on the front lawn.  
Family traditions take a while.  
But I should be back again on Saturday!  
Okay, I've babbled enough. Story time.

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Chapter Twenty-Seven:

Emerson was nowhere to be found when Daryl woke up the next morning. She had fallen asleep on top of Daryl as was now per their usual. But she wasn't there when he woke up. There was a moment when he freaked out, sure that she had left him again, left to go join Jackson's group and that she was never coming back. But he calmed down when he looked in the back seat and found Matt and Lou sleeping soundly. She would never leave without them. He looked through the window outside and saw her standing by the iron gates again, with Rick looking at the Walkers, almost studying them. He grabbed his jacket from the driver's seat and quickly climbed out of the car, jogging through the crisp morning air to where the two were standing. "Well Carol's out today," he heard Rick say, the man continuing a conversation with Emerson. "And you really should be out too. We can't afford to have you mess up your knee anymore than you already have. Besides, someone needs to be with Lori incase she passes out again."

"My leg is bruised, Rick," Emerson said, her tone more patient than it was if she had been having this conversation with Daryl. "And Hershel's with Lori. He knows what to look for now. Two doctors in one car would just be overkill."

Rick nodded and looked back through the gate at the Walkers. They were still there on the other side of the fence, but the chilly air had slowed them down a bit. They weren't rushing toward the gate even though there were two humans standing on the other side. "How many do you think are left?" he asked, gesturing toward the Walkers. "We killed about a hundred of them yesterday, plus the fifty in the lot on the first day."

Emerson shrugged, "About five hundred of them lived on campus when the school was actually operating. I don't know what happened when the infection started. They started mandatory evacuations, but at some point they may have just given up and quarantined the students instead. There could be more than five hundred students or a whole lot less. I think even if we kill enough to be comfortable enough to move into a building it's still going to be a while before we're sure that we're absolutely safe here. We'll still need a look out even when we're safely in a building."

Rick nodded to a building across the small quad from them. It was a dorm building with a widow's peak on top. "That'll be the first building we take over," he said. "We'll go bottom up, board up all the windows once we've cleared each floor. And we'll live on the top floor." Emerson nodded, the only worry would be more Walkers getting in the building as they worked to clear it. The good news was that the dorm was only three floors. She pointed out the shutters on the second and third floor, if they were actually operational they wouldn't have to board up the windows, they would just be able to close them instead. Rick nodded before pointing at the Walkers in front of them, "They're slower today," he said. "Might not be as hard to handle."

Emerson had her eyes on a short brunette Walker that had on a dirty, torn Wonder Woman costume, she raised her eyebrows, had it been near Halloween when the infection started at the school? The Wonder Woman Walker was relatively near the gate, digging around near the deer carcass, looking for any remains that would be worth eating. Emerson took out her knife and carefully slit a shallow cut onto the palm of her hand, hissing slightly in pain. She silently let the blood ooze into her palm for about a minute before she carefully slipped her hand through the rungs of the gate and smeared her blood on them. She pulled her hand back quickly, just before the Wonder Woman Walker and several others rushed at the gate, thrown into a frenzy at the smell of fresh blood. Daryl was behind her in an instant, his arms wrapped around her, pulling her further away from the gate to make sure that she was safe. Emerson smiled up at him briefly before she turned to look at Rick, "I wouldn't bet on them being easier to handle," she said softly. "They just needed a bit of motivation."

Daryl shook his head at her. He wanted to wrap her up in his arms and hold her close to him to make sure that she wouldn't do anything that would endanger herself again. But Rick was there and he had a feeling that Emerson wouldn't like it. Instead he settled for holding her face between his hands and pulling her closer to him, "You are so stupid," he said, shaking his head before his eyes shifted toward Rick to make sure the man wasn't watching them. "So stupid," he said again before he leaned in and pressed a kiss onto Emerson's lips.

"Good morning to you too," Emerson said with a smile when she pulled herself out of his arms. "I'm so glad that you like me for my brain," she joked. "That I'm not one of those stupid girls that only gets by on her looks. You're so lucky you got one of the smart ones."

"I got a smart and pretty one," Daryl corrected her softly, leaning in to press another kiss to her lips before pulling away from her completely when he caught Rick looking at them.

"And I got a complicated one who doesn't like public displays of affection," Emerson whispered back. "Lucky, lucky me." Rick chuckled and shook his head at the two of them before he told them that he was going to get breakfast. He told them to make sure that they got something to eat too before they got started with the day's work. Emerson nodded, but instead of following the older man toward the cars and the food she turned back to the Walkers beyond the gate. looking at the growing number just waiting for their chance to try to get to the humans. "Look at that one," she said softly, nodding toward Wonder Woman. "What do you think her story is?"

Daryl shook his head, the Wonder Woman Walker was staring at Emerson with a look that he didn't like in her filmy eyes. It was as though after smelling her blood the Walker had decided that she was going to go after Emerson. Like she had a hit list or something. Daryl didn't like that, he didn't like the feeling that the Walker was planning something. He didn't like wondering if Walkers were even able to plan. "I don't care," he said, shaking his head and wrapping his arm around her shoulders. "I don't like the way it's looking at you."

"_She_," Emerson corrected, not even really listening to what Daryl had said. "The way _she's_ looking at me."

"Time to get you away from them," Daryl said, shaking his head. "Before you start to think that they're hungry and might want something to eat." Emerson rolled her eyes and shook her head at him. She told him that she wasn't as stupid as he seemed to think she was. Daryl shook his head, "Don't worry, Em," he said, unwrapping his arm from her shoulders so that he could grab her hand and give it a gentle squeeze, "I know you're not stupid." Emerson smiled at him and lifted up their intertwined hands so that she could kiss the back of his hand.

"Neither are you, you know?" she whispered softly. "No matter what anyone's told you in the past." Daryl looked at her, his eyebrows raised as if he didn't quite believe her. She sighed, "Daryl," she whined softly. "Trust me. I don't date dumb boys."

"I ain't a boy," Daryl argued before her words had sunk in. He paused, staring down at the girl for a moment before he decided to ask her the question he had been worrying about since the first night at the farm house. "Em," he said softly, stopping and reaching out to pull Emerson closer to him. "If the world hadn't ended, if I had met you in college, or after you had come back from Afghanistan. If you had met me then, without any Walkers, would you even consider spending time with a guy like me? Me in particular?"

Emerson pulled away from him, staring at him, studying him. Daryl closed his eyes, trying to ready himself for the letdown. The redhead was going to tell him that she wouldn't have spent time with him, that the only reason she was with him was because there was no one else for her to be with. She sighed and let go of his hand so that she could hold his face between her hands. "Daryl," she said softly. "Look at me," she added when the man refused to open his eyes. She smiled at him once she could see his blue eyes, "Hey there, stranger," she smiled at him.

"You haven't answered the question," Daryl pointed out, though he couldn't stop himself from leaning into her touch. "I need to know the answer, Em, I need to know."

"Oh Dare," Emerson sighed softly. "I don't know what you mean by _a guy like you_. You're an amazing guy. Any woman would be lucky to have you - end of the world or not. Why can't you see that? You're amazing and smart and brave and good. So good. And you care about people, more than you want people to know. Daryl Dixon, I don't ever want to hear you talking like this again."

"You still haven't answered the question," Daryl pointed out. "You've pointed out all these things that I am. But you haven't told me that if you had seen me walking down the street in Glenwood whether you would want to talk to me or not? And don't say you would because I'm a great person. Because you wouldn't know that. You wouldn't know it if you saw me walking down the road dressed like a do, crossbow over my shoulder. You wouldn't have wanted to get to know me, to spend time with me. And if you say you wouldn't you'd be lying."

Emerson stared at him, "So basically you're asking me a question that I can't answer. I tell you that I would want to spend time with you and I'm lying. If I tell you that I wouldn't want to spend time with you than I'm the bitch that judges books by their cover." She sighed and shook her head, "Let's be honest Daryl, if the world hadn't ended and I had seen you walking down the street in Glenwood, I would have been intrigued, curious. I would have noticed you, but I probably wouldn't have talked to you. If I had I would have loved you, I'm sure of it because I would have seen what a great person you were. But I wouldn't have talked to you." Daryl frowned, he had known that was going to be her answer but it still hurt him. "That isn't a fair question though," Emerson pointed out. "Because if you had seen me before all of this happened. If you had seen me at a bar or something instead of a dirty girl trapped in a tree surrounded by Walkers, would you have talked to me?"

"I would have wanted to," Daryl said, looking Emerson up and down. "If I had seen you in a bar and you were all dressed up and pretty I would have wanted to approach you."

"But you wouldn't have," Emerson pointed out, no question to her statement.

"You would have been surrounded by pretty boys like that Jackson. You wouldn't have wanted to talk to me." Daryl pointed out. "A girl like you would have laughed at a guy like me if he tried to buy you a drink."

Emerson shook her head, "I wouldn't have laughed," she said. "I never did. And I wouldn't have laughed at you." She paused for a moment, just staring at the old man before she nodded, "To answer your question, no I probably wouldn't have considered spending time with a guy like you before the world ended. But that would have been my loss. And you wouldn't have considered even talking to a girl like me. So I think we're lucky." Daryl raised his eyebrows in surprise, that was the last word he had expected to hear from Emerson. She nodded, a small smile spreading across her lips. "Yes," she said, the smile growing bigger, "lucky. That despite everything that happened, despite the Walkers and how big this state is and how we never should have found each other we did. Because you are an amazing man, Dare, and I am so lucky that you found me."

Daryl stared at her for a moment before he nodded, that was an answer he hadn't expected, but knowing Emerson it was one he should have. She had been bluntly honest before, and she had never really made it a secret that she liked Daryl, even if it was just as friends. He smiled down at the younger girl, "I guess I'd say I'm pretty lucky too," he said as he leaned down to press a kiss onto Emerson's lips. She smiled against his lips and pulled him closer so that she could slip her tongue into his mouth. Daryl groaned into the kiss, they had had so few like this, it was hard to get romantic when there was an entire group hanging around.

Emerson giggled when she pulled away from him, she stood on her tiptoes so that she could press her forehead against Daryl's. "And for the record," she whispered softly. "I never liked the pretty boys like Jackson all that much. If they took longer to get ready for a date than I did then they weren't worth my time."

Daryl shook his head and chuckled, "Well it's a good thing I don't even change my shirt for a date," he said - half joking, half serious. He had never done it before, but if a girl like Emerson had ever agreed to go on a date with him, he might have.

Emerson smiled at him, "Somehow I don't believe that you ever went on many dates, Mister Dixon," she teased. "When I picture a date with Daryl Dixon I see pizza and a six pack followed by half dressed sex on the couch before you send the girl home."

"Sometimes we got all the way naked," Daryl defended himself with a slow, nervous grin spreading across his lips. "If the girl was special enough."

"Would I have been special enough?" Emerson teased with a grin. "Would I have been honored with full frontal sex?"

"Are you asking?" Daryl joked, moving closer to the redhead and wrapping his arms around her waist. "Because there's a tattoo on your hipbone that I'd like to become better acquainted with."

"You saw that, did you?" Emerson asked with a smile. She glanced around the car lot, "Tell you what, once we clear the school and we're in an actual building with beds that are far away from my little brother. You can get to know that tattoo as much as you want." Daryl forced a pout onto his lips, he had no idea how long it was going to take for them to get into the actual school. Emerson giggled, "You can wait that long," she said, reading the correct reason for the pout. "For me?"

Daryl sighed, the girl was going to be the death of him, he was pretty sure that there wasn't anything he wouldn't do for the little redhead. Not that he was going to tell her that. He rolled his eyes and shook his head. "I guess so," he said.

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An hour later Rick, T-Dog, Maggie, Glenn, Daryl, and Emerson were lined up in front of the gate waiting for the Walkers. Daryl was tense the Wonder Woman Walker was standing directly in front of the gate, staring at Emerson as if she was a meal waiting to be eaten. Daryl didn't like the idea that the Walker was planning on attacking Emerson. He wasn't sure if Walkers were capable of planning, it was probably ridiculous. But the Walker was staring at Emerson with her filmy eyes, as though it had gotten a taste of Emerson's blood and had decided that Emerson was all it wanted. Emerson glanced at the redhead next to him, she smiled at him and he nodded, she was ready for the fight that much was clear. Daryl wasn't going to stop her from fighting the Walkers but that Wonder Woman Walker was going to be the first to go, and long before it could get anywhere near Emerson.

He and T-Dog moved toward the gates and opened them, Maggie and Glenn provided cover while Daryl and T closed the gates. Emerson and Rick started killing the Walkers right away. Emerson had already killed two Walkers before Daryl got back to her. They were operating under the same plan on the day before so he was her partner and he didn't like not being near her, even while she was within sight. She smiled at him again when he joined her, she felt safer when he was next to her than when he was near her. Two Walkers approached her from the right and she quickly jammed her knife into the first Walker's skull, dropping to the ground with it as Daryl jammed an arrow into the skull of the second one. Emerson twisted her knife and pulled it out of the skull of the first Walker as she stood up and Daryl pushed the second Walker out of her way. "We make a good team, huh?" Emerson asked as she stood up to her full height and threw one of her knives at the head of an approaching Walker.

Daryl nodded. His eyes darted toward the gate, looking for Wonder Woman. He found the Walker, she was tearing apart the deer the group had left out for the Walkers. She wasn't bothering anyone at the moment. But he wanted her dead. "I'll be back," he growled to Emerson before he moved toward the deer. He reached down, they had left a pile of weapons on the ground where everyone could reach them, and picked up an axe. The Walker must have smelled him as he approached, though he wasn't sure how, he was covered with Walker blood, because she turned around and looked at him. She stood up and growled, making her way toward him. "No you don't," he growled at her before he swung the axe at her head, imbedding it in the Walker's skull. He smiled at the noise of the axe colliding with the Walker's skull and then its brain. He normally didn't celebrate killing Walkers, but this one was a personal victory for him.

Emerson raised he eyebrows when Daryl got back to her. "What was that about?" she asked him. "She wasn't doing anything yet. We would've gotten to her." Daryl shrugged, he didn't know what to say to her, how to explain that he didn't like that specific Walker. That he had to kill it. That he felt as though it was a threat to her and that he couldn't handle anything being a threat to her. He wasn't mushy like that, he couldn't let her know he thought like that. One she would make fun of him and two Dixon's didn't have feelings like that. If they did they didn't talk about them. "You're not going to tell me are you?" Emerson asked. Daryl shook his head. "Okay."

They spent the rest of the afternoon killing rounds and rounds of Walkers, By that afternoon the group was tired, hungry, dirty, and slightly wounded, but they were happy. When Rick climbed up on the Wall he couldn't see any Walkers in the courtyard or near any of the buildings closest to the gate. He wasn't going to fool himself into thinking that all the Walkers were gone, or that the campus was completely safe. But he did feel comfortable with the thought that they next time they tried to clear something of Walkers that it would be a building. He congratulated the group as they sat down around the fire for dinner. "We'll take a day or two off maybe," he said. But he glanced at the school - they days and nights were getting colder now, they'd want to be in a building soon. "Or maybe not. We'll take a vote. But I think it's safe to say that by this time next week, we should be living in one of the dorm buildings."

As the group cheered Daryl glanced at Emerson who had her arm wrapped around Matt's shoulder. She looked up at him, her green eyes sparkling in the firelight before she sent a playful wink in his direction. Yeah, Daryl decided, his vote was going to be that they start clearing a building right away. He wasn't sure if he was going to be able to wait much longer.

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Author's Note:  
Mush! That's what this chapter was! Mush.  
At least for the most part, happy couplely mush.  
My Thanksgiving gift to you.  
I hope you liked it. Let me know.  
Thank you for stopping by and reading. But as always special thanks goes to: _RainbowShelby, courtn3ys, kale-aka-hua, tonitangible, BonneyQ, _and _cloudscollide_ who added this story to their Favorites List. And to: _Harmony Days, Huzzah-94, Whispers from the Shadows, kale-aka-hua, mangamak, teamjacob3539, tonitangible, Ambray, Atilia Dawn Black, BonneyQ, _and _cloudscollide_ who added this story to their Alerts List.  
Of course the **BIGGEST** of special thanks goes to those of you that **REVIEWED** on the last chapter:  
**Signora Ted: **Thank you! I'm glad that you liked the last chapter and I hope that you liked this one too! I have a thing for the sweet Daryl thing. I like the type ... gruff, dirty, with an inner sweet side. I'm a sucker for that type. I bet he gives good hugs too! And yeah I saw the trailer the other day! I'm so excited for this game. :D  
**isopt: **Haha. As you guys know, I write the chapters ahead of time. So yeah, I'm kind of psychic because you said you were missing the love and I had already written the love! I'm glad that you liked the last chapter and I hope that you like this one too!  
**HeartyJessica: **Hello! I'm glad you like this story! Welcome to the WD fandom! I watched season one and two right before season three started. I got through them in like two days. I was like an obsessed woman. Thank you for your review! I'm glad you think I capture the characters well. You have no idea how much that means to me! So thank you.  
**mrskazk53: **Hello dear! Thank you so much for your review. I am so happy that you liked the last two chapters and I really hope that you like this one as well. Yeah, Carl wasn't being an idiot, I like him a little too much for that.  
**valeries26: **Last week's episode was so amazing! I had almost wished that I hadn't had Daryl open up about his mother in my story because I've said she ran away. And his story broke my heart. Grrr. But yeah, shit's gonna hit the fan, as long as Glenn and Maggie aren't hurt in it I'll probably love it.  
**Gaby de Brabant: **Flawless chapter? Flawless review! I'm so glad that you liked the last chapter. And I hope that you enjoyed this one too (even though you had to wait more than a full day for it. I'm sorry.) I'm glad that you like how I portray Lori and Carl. Everyone always talks about how I portray Daryl, but I get really happy when people talk about how I write the other characters thank you! And yeah, Norman following us on Twitter would be a dream come true.  
**RainbowShelby: **I did too! I didn't even really like her, but I bawled when she dies. Especially when she was talking to Carl. Oh shit. It was bad. I'm so glad that you're enjoying this story and I hope that you enjoyed this chapter too. And yeah, Maggie and Em would be epic. I have to really make that happen.  
**mischieflover: **Yes! Someone else who is torn about Carol coming back! I like her when she's just being friends with Daryl, but when they try to put in sexual tension ... it makes me angry! So angry! And yeah, you don't have to tell me how the show stresses you out, I completely understand. Do you scream at the tv during episodes too sometimes? (Or correction, I pause the episode so that I can yell at it without missing anything.)  
I'm glad you liked the last chapter. I just couldn't ignore the Lori situation anymore. People can't ignore the situation anymore. And yeah, Daryl (especially my version of him) is like my perfect man. This story's really just my way to deal with my fangirl feelings. I hope that you likedthis chapter as well, dear. :D  
**DancingUnderMoonlight18: **I mean, I wouldn't put it past Carl to get out of the car and start trying to slay zombies. But I couldn't do that, he's got to start growing up at some point. He's got to start being smart eventually, right? Right. I fully agree with you on Daryl. I love him too, he's kind of perfect. So I had to give them mush. I had to do it.  
And Sunday's episode was crazy. I was so excited that Merle is finally getting close to interacting with the group again. Because I've been waiting for that all season. But so help me god if he hurts Glenn or Maggie. I will be so angry! Someone ruined it for you? That witch! Did you punch her? I would have. I really would have. But yeah, watch it when it airs from now on, especially next week. I have a feeling something BIG is going to happen.  
**SilverAdvenger12: **It always bothered me too! I was like, I get that Hershel's a vet and not a doctor, but come on! Someone should have realized that it was a death sentence for her to have that baby. Like, Lori at least should have realized it. And the episode was so good. Like I was crazy about it! Hopefully Carol wasn't bit!  
**FanFicGirl10: **I'm glad you liked the last chapter! I hope you liked this chapter too! Yeah, I have a feeling Emerson's going to have to be the bearer of a lot of bad news in this story. I have plans after all. :D BIG PLANS.  
**DBugMom: **Two reviews! Look at you! I'm so glad that you liked the last two chapters and that at least one of them had you on the edge of your seat. You have no idea how happy that makes me! I'm sorry I didn't update yesterday The boyfriend got in the way, he's kind of problematic like that. But I hope this chapter and some of it's mushiness made up for that. **Huzzah-94: **Hello! I'm pretty sure you're a new reviewer so welcome! I'm glad that you're enjoying this story so far. And thank you, I still blush and grin when people tell me I'm an amazing writer. And I'm so glad that you're in love with my pairing. I'm thinking about giving them a name like Emeryl or Darylson ... not sure yet. What do you think?  
**MagicalElf73: **I'm so glad that you're so glad! It really bothered me that they never discussed it on the show. My mom's a nurse and she and I would watch episodes and be like, she's gonna die. Either the baby's gonna die or she is. So I cried when Lori died, but I didn't really freak out, I had known it was going to happen.  
I would take Lil Ass Kicker over Lori too. And probably Beth, she's kind of useless. So glad Michonne's finally there though. I've been waiting for that all season. The group's gonna kick ass now. I'm excited.  
**ResidentGoth: **I did too. I love researching things when I write. So I had a little nerd field trip across the internet to try to figure out the chances of Lori surviving the C-section or some complications with pregnancy. I had so much fun and since Emerson's an army medic I was like ... yes! I can actually put this in my story. Did a little happy dance.  
And don't worry about not having a filter, I'm originally from the north. (Army brat so I don't really have a "home" but my parents' families are from New York. We lived there for a while.) And yankees... we don't have filters either so I'm used to it.  
Randall being part of Darren's group... that's an interesting idea. I won't give anything away as to whether or not I had toyed with that idea, but it's an interesting one. :D  
I'm okay with Maggie and Glenn getting beat up, even "to' up from the flo' up" but if they kill them, or even one of them. I will freak out. And I get your love/hate relationship with Merle. I'm just saying, the guy is rude, racist, sexist, and pretty much an ass. But if there were a zombie apocalypse, I would want a guy like him on my team. He'd know what he was doing. So I wasn't the only one who felt that Daryl's opening up was very sudden? It broke my heart, but it felt out of place.  
**teamjacob3539: **Hello new reader and reviewer! I'm so glad that you like this story. You're more than welcome for writing it. Thank you for reading it and reviewing on it! I hope you enjoyed this chapter as well!  
** . .Me: **And I absolutely loved your review! It's one of the best ones you've read? You have no idea how much that means to me! I'm so glad that you're enjoying it. There's a lot of Daryl love here, so if you love him you've found the right place. Why haven't you seen season three yet? (Hopefully I haven't given too much away on here, I tend to put in little tidbits about the episodes at the top ... don't read those!) Don't worry though, they haven't hurt our redneck yet. :D  
**Ambray: **And I can't even pretend that I'm not thrilled you're addicted to it! I'm so glad you're enjoying it, though you shouldn't have stayed up and woken up early to continue (though that's a HUGE compliment) it would still be here when you got back. :D I hope that you enjoyed this chapter as well.  
Yeah I read a Daryl/OC fic once (and by read it I mean like four chapters) but the author made it clear that she didn't plan on introducing the OC to the group. The chick and Daryl were just going to live alone in the woods. And it sucked. Part of the whole point of WD is the whole group... Daryl and Em got some time to get to know each other and then they were going to get back to the group. That much was certain.  
And I'm so glad you like Emerson and Matt. They're loosely based off of me and my younger brother Holden (about the same age difference) but I was constantly worried that people would see the younger brother as a nuisance. No one has though, which is pretty sweet.  
As far as the story line goes, I have replaced the prison with the school, but I really like the idea of the prison. So that might make it into the story somehow. And parts of the third season will make their way into the story (The Governor for example, might :p and Lori's labor.) I'm just kind of weaving them together, while keep the majority of the action my own. And I'm really glad people like it. :D  
**mina90: **I've been to Hamburg! That's so cool! I'm glad that you still like Emerson and Daryl. I hope you liked them in this chapter too! And I agree, Carl was a nuisance in seasons 1 and 2, but he's stepping up in season 3. I'm proud of him. (And either one works ... getting or become I understand what you're saying either way.)  
And phew! That's a lot of reviews! Thank you!  
Until later this afternoon, happy reading!  
Hugs and kisses,  
Chloe Jane.


	29. Chapter Twenty-Eight

Disclaimer: I do not own the Walking Dead, although I'm completely obsessed with it and wished I did. Emerson, however, I do own.

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**HUGE** apologies for dropping out on you for almost a week!  
If you follow me on tumblr you know it's because of an ill timed diagnosis of tonsilitis and finals week.  
School and tonsils suck.  
The good news is that I'm back (though for the next two weeks I might not be back every day ... school stuff to do.)  
But I am back and updating. And I'm so sorry for leaving you guys for so long.

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Everyone see last night's episode?  
It was crazy. At least Glenn and Maggie are okay.  
Daryl better be safe come February or I will go on a rampage.

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Also thanks to **HUZZAH-94 **we have a ship name: **EMERYL**!

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And one final thing... I'm contemplating getting a beta reader for this story.  
Anyone want the job? You gotta be pretty good with grammar and english and have time to edit the chapters in a timely manner.  
But on the plus side you get to read the chapters before everyone else does.  
Anyway, let me know.

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* * *

Chapter Twenty-Eight:

The group voted and with the exception of Lori and Matt they voted to start working on clearing the buildings as soon as the next day. It seemed that they were all getting quite tired of sleeping in cars. It had been all well and good when they had been driving down abandoned roads and sleeping in the woods. But now that they were so close to real beds and walls and a roof the group didn't want to wait any longer than was absolutely necessary. Rick and Emerson had climbed up onto the wall and picked out which building they should clear first, they decided on the dorm building that was across the quad from the iron gates. It was a bit of a gamble, there were at least three other buildings they would have to pass before getting to the dorm building, but as they had seen earlier, the dorm had a widow's walk on the top which would be good for keeping watch. Emerson had been completely ready to move onto the building the next day, but Daryl had quickly shut down her excitement.

"It's gonna be like the farm house," he told her, not even bothering to look apologetic. He didn't feel bad about the fact that Emerson was going to have to sit a fight out. He had been hoping for this for a while. "Me, Rick, Glenn, and T go in there and clear it floor by floor. Ya'll stay here. Once it's been cleared ya'll will get in the house, start working on closing it up and we'll decide if we want to try to clear another building. It all depends on how long it takes. Then we'll have to sort through the things in the dorms, decide if anything is worth keepin' or if we should just throw it all out. That'll be your job."

"So instead of doing something useful I get to hang out with the pregnant woman, the old man, and the children?" Emerson asked, her tone bitter. She instantly felt bad for her tone and her question. That hadn't been fair. She honestly loved the people in the group and the last thing she wanted to do was to make Daryl think that she didn't. "I'm sorry," she sighed, looking up at Daryl through her lashes, her green eyes apologetic. "I just want to do something that actually feels useful. Closing shutters and sorting through college kids' belongs doesn't feel very important or remotely useful. What if something happens to you? Or Rick? Or Glenn? Or T? I should be in the buildings with you."

"If something happens to one of us you'll be exactly where we want you to be," Daryl said. "Safe and ready to sew us up. As far as you go, medically speaking you'll do us no good in the house. It's not as though you can stitch someone up with Walkers all around you," he pointed out. Emerson opened her mouth to argue, but Daryl held his hand up, "Please Em," he almost begged. "I've already almost -" he cut himself off, shook his head. "Matt has already almost lost you enough times," he corrected. "Don't make him risk it again just because you're too pigheaded to realize that for once your place isn't in the fight. Stay here for Matt. Please?"

"Just for Matt?" Emerson had whispered, her eyes darting over to her little brother who was playing with Lou by the car. "You want me to stay out here just for Matt? No one else?"

Daryl sighed, he knew where she was going with this. He had opened himself up to it after all, he couldn't be surprised that she had caught on to it. "Women," he muttered under his breath as he shook his head - they just couldn't let things go. "Fine," he said, a little louder this time so that Emerson could hear him. "For me too. Stay here for me too."

Emerson stared up at him for a moment before she nodded. She stood on her tiptoes and gently grasped Daryl's face in her hands, she smiled when he didn't flinch, he really was getting used to her. "Fine," she said softly. "But I'm going to worry about you every minute, Daryl Dixon."

"I don't need none of your worry, woman," Daryl pointed out, gently forcing her away from him, though there was a smile on his face. "I've told you that a hundred times."

"And you'll have to tell me at least once more," Emerson said with a grin. "Always at least once more."

Daryl chuckled and shook his head at the redhead, "You don't need to worry none about me," he said slowly, as if saying the statement slowly would make the girl understand what he was saying a little better. "After all the times I've saved your ass I think we both know who needs to be doing the worrying in this relationship." Emerson smiled up at him before lifting her finger up and placing it on her nose, pouting playfully. "Yeah," Daryl said with a nod as he leaned closer to her and place a kiss on her lips, "Me. Besides, the quicker I get this dorm building cleared, the sooner I can get to know that tattoo of yours. I've been waiting for that since the first time I saved your life."

"I was doing just fine without you," Emerson argued as she pulled out of his arms. "But you're right. So you better get going. I have a feeling Rick's getting irritated waiting for you anyway. We're taking longer to say goodbye than Maggie and Glenn. That's a problem."

Daryl nodded, "That is a problem," he agreed before he leaned in to kiss her one more time. "I'll come back to you," he promised before he turned to join Rick. "I'll always come back to you."

Emerson didn't know what to do with herself after Daryl and the rest of the men climbed over the wall and ventured through the quad toward the dorm building. She stood by the gates watching nervously for the first twenty minutes. She watched them cross the quad, killing a few Walkers that tried to attack them on the way. She would have continued to watch from the gate even after the group entered the building but Maggie, Matt, and Carl approached her and forced her to go back to the cars. They were sorting all of their belongings into two cars. They were going to drive the cars to the building and unpack them. The rest of the cars were going to stay in the lot, hidden from view from the gate in case a group passed by the school for some reason. The two biggest cars would be parked by the dorm building in case the group needed to make a quick escape.

By the time Emerson had made it to the group most of the supplies had been sorted into the two cars and the rest of them had been moved. She wondered why Maggie and the boys had pulled her over there when Carl pulled the monopoly game out of one of the cars and laid it down on the ground. "We're going to play a game," Carl said, his tone more stern than Emerson had ever heard it, the boy was making it clear that she wasn't allowed to argue with him. "My dad said it was probably going to be about two hours before we can go to the dorm. So we're going to play monopoly."

Emerson wanted to argue, she wanted to say that she would rather be watching the dorm from the gate, watching for the men. But she glanced at her brother, his eyes were wide and pleading, "Please Emmy?" he begged. "You make me nervous when you're all tense and worried. I don't want to be nervous. They're going to be fine. Daryl said so." Emerson couldn't help scoffing at that as she asked Matt if he really believed Daryl. Matt nodded, "Don't you?" he asked her as if she was the crazy one. "Whenever he says something is going to be alright. It is. You should believe him." Her brother paused for a moment, "And you should play with us," he said with another nod. "Maggie said you would."

Emerson sighed, it seemed that there would be no winning for her. "Fine, I'm the car."

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Rick had been eerily correct about the amount of time it would take for the men to clear the dorm. Emerson, Maggie, and the boys hadn't even bought up all the property on the board by the time they heard Rick's whistled signal that it was time for them to get moving. The boys quickly threw all the game pieces into the box as Emerson and Maggie made sure that all the supplies were ready to be transported. The dorm building was empty, and for the most part the surrounding quad must have been cleared. Glenn was keeping watch from the top of the dorm building, but the other three men were walking through the quad, their arms relaxed, their weapons pointed down. But all the same the group in the car lot was left with a feeling of nervous anticipation. It felt to Emerson like the school had been cleared far too easily. It made her uncomfortable. And she couldn't wait until the entire group was closed into the secure dorm building.

She met the men at the gate, quickly unlocking it so that the cars could drive through it. "How bad was it?" she asked as she and T-Dog opened the gates as wide as they could go so that the cars could drive through. "It really didn't take you guys that long at all. How many Walkers were there?"

Daryl glanced at Rick, "Fifty," he hazarded a guess, "maybe sixty." Rick nodded, Daryl's estimate seemed right to him. "They moved slower than some of the geeks I've seen," Daryl continued as he helped Emerson push the gate closed. Emerson threw the key to Rick so that he could lock the gate again. "I think it's cause it's been a while since they've had something to eat. They're startin' to starve."

That was interesting news. Emerson hadn't thought that maybe they would be able to starve. She hadn't really thought much about how to kill Walkers besides the knife to the head. But maybe they could be starved, maybe if they were left unfed for long enough they would die on their own. Could they die on their own? Or would they just go into hibernation until something alive was near enough to them that they could smell it? She shook her head, it was no use wondering about those things, it wasn't like she would ever be able to experiment on the Walkers to see. And if they could somehow starve to death she imagined that it would take a long time for that to happen. Time that the group didn't have. They were walking toward the dorm now, she must have been quiet for too long because Daryl gently bumped her shoulder with his own and raised his eyebrows at her in a silent question when she turned to look at him. She shrugged, her green eyes darting around the quad, looking for a threat. "Is it really safe?" she asked Daryl, her tone hushed.

Daryl shrugged, "I expect not," he said, being brutally honest. "Like you said before, it's going to be a while before we're sure if we're safe. We'll have to clear all the buildings and we don't know if there are Walkers in the woods on the campus. We'll have to scout and we'll be needing a look out all the time. Even with the wall. But we're safer now than we've been in a while. We're hidden from the road, if anyone passes they shouldn't know we're here. We've got the wall, a roof, more gas than we've ever had. We're safer now."

Emerson nodded, she bit back the response that at one point she had thought the cabin was safe and to look at how that had turned out. She watched as Matt and Lou ran around in the grass in front of the dorm building, trying to get rid of some of their energy before they went into the building for the rest of the day and the night. "We're safe now," she repeated Daryl's words, smiling as her brother fell onto his back in the grass and let Lou lick his face. "Thanks to you," she added, turning to look at Daryl, relief flashing in her eyes.

"Thanks to you," Daryl corrected. "You were the one that told us about this place, that got us here. We're safer now than we've been in a while thanks to you."

Emerson smiled up at him, a blush rising on her cheeks. She wasn't sure how to respond to that. She wasn't sure what to do with praise. She opened her mouth to respond, but she was cut off a moment later when Carol and Lori walked out of the dorm building, large smiles on their faces. "Oh Em," Carol enthused, pointing her thumb over her shoulder toward the dorm building. "The rooms are perfect. There's running water a fire place in every dorm room. And Glenn says he thinks there's a generator in the back."

Emerson nodded, she was better with this kind of praise, it wasn't directed toward her, but rather to the building she had found. This was easier for her. "It'll be a solar powered generator, they upgraded last year. And they always spoiled their students with the fireplaces. They were what first pulled me toward this place, that we would be able to stay warm. This place is pretty perfect, huh?"

Lori nodded, her hand resting on her stomach, "My baby's going to be happy and safe here," she said, a soft smile resting on her lips as she looked down at her stomach. "I have you to thank for that. And Rick," she shook her head. "I got so mad at him for trying so hard to clear this building. I owe him an apology. And you too."

Emerson waved Lori off, uncomfortable again. "I'm going to go help T move the bodies," she said, turning back to look at Daryl. "Where does Rick want them?" Daryl told her that Rick wanted them piled behind the building closest to the wall separating the buildings from the car lot. He had decided to burn the bodies in small piles, to ensure that there was no large fire to draw attention to their location. She nodded, shooting a smile toward Daryl before she moved toward Matt. "Hey Matty," she said once she was close enough to the boy that he could hear her. "Why don't you and Lou go upstairs and pick out a room. Make sure it has two bedrooms okay? One for you and one for me."

"And Daryl?" Matt asked, his tone innocent. "Does Daryl need a bedroom too?" Emerson smiled at her brother and shook her head, Daryl wasn't going to need his own bedroom. Matt nodded, "So two bedrooms, three beds. Daryl can be my roommate."

Emerson sighed, she was going to have to explain to her brother that Daryl wasn't going to be his roommate but hers. She thought about doing it then, but her brother had already turned around and headed into the building. She heard Daryl laughing behind her, he had obviously heard their conversation. She shook her head and shot a playful glare at him. "Shut up, you," she said, biting back a smile. "I'm going to go move some bodies."

It took Rick, T-Dog, and Emerson an hour to move and burn all of the bodies. The campus smelled horrible, but Emerson found it promising that during the entire hour she didn't see a single Walker. That had to mean something, didn't it? Rick had headed back to the dorm building to make sure that the rest of the group was okay as they sorted through the college students' rooms for useable supplies. T-Dog and Emerson had stayed by the fires to watch them burn. "T," Emerson said softly, not looking up from the fire in front of her, "What's your real name?" She smiled when she felt T-Dog looking at her, her question had come out of nowhere. It must have surprised him. "I just," she paused, trying to figure out how to explain it to him. "I just feel like I hardly know you. So what's your name?"

"Theodore Douglas," T-Dog said slowly. "But it's a long name. They always called me T-Dog in high school." Emerson nodded, she asked him if he had had a wife and children before the Walkers. T-Dog shook his head, "I had a girlfriend though," he said with a nod. "She didn't make it. Lost her when I was trying to drive some old folks out of the city."

Emerson nodded, placing a sympathetic hand on T-Dog's shoulder. "I'm sorry, Theodore," she said, trying his name out. He chuckled at her and shook his head. She wrinkled her nose and shook her head as well. "That doesn't sound right," she said. "But I am sorry, T."

The man shrugged, stuffing his hands in his pockets before he turned away from the fires and began to walk back toward the dorm building. They walked past the buildings without fear, the men had shuttered up the windows and boarded the doors. If there were any Walkers in the buildings, it would be hard for them to get out. "It happened to all of us," he said. "Everyone lost someone. You know that better than most." Emerson nodded, she did know it. T-Dog sighed, "Did you have a boy, Em?" he asked her. When Emerson didn't answer he chuckled again, "Come on, a pretty girl like you? No boy?"

"There was the idea of a boy," she said softly. "I wasn't really in the best of shape when I got back from Afghanistan. I had told my parents that I was only going to be visiting them for a short amount of time, but I was planning on staying with them. I needed to find a way to get back on my feet. And I thought that maybe home could help. There was nobody I was really interested in, but there was the hope that one day I'd be able to sleep through the night without having flashbacks to the war zone. And that I'd finally be ready to let someone in."

"The way I see it you already have let someone in," T-Dog said, nodding toward the dorm building where Daryl was sitting on the steps, repeatedly throwing his knife into the air and catching it again, waiting for Emerson. "Couldn't have picked a better guy, either."

Emerson smiled softly at the brunette man waiting for her. "I don't know why," she said softly. "But he makes me feel safer than I've felt since the first time I went overseas. It doesn't make any sense to me. He's been good for me, I've had less episodes since I met him." T-Dog's eyebrows quirked at the word _episodes_ he asked Emerson what she meant. The redhead sighed, "I used to not be able to sleep through the night," she answered honestly. "Still can't do it sometimes, but at least now I don't wake up screaming. I used to have dreams about being back over there, flashbacks and not good ones. He stopped a lot of them. It's been nice. To not be scared. At least of that, you know?"

T-Dog nodded. He couldn't understand where Emerson was coming from, he had never lived in a war zone like she had, hadn't seen half the things she had seen. But he could tell just how much she needed Daryl. He could understand that much. Emerson smiled at him and gave him a slight nod in return. "I'm sorry about your girl," she said softly, feeling as though she needed to apologize at least once more. It didn't seem fair that T-Dog was all on his own and she had her brother and Daryl.

T-Dog shrugged, his hands still stuffed in his pockets. He turned to face the distant fires, his eyes scanning over the quad. "Sometimes I think it's better this way," he said. "Better that she didn't have to see the world like this. She wasn't tough like you. This," he nodded toward the burning piles of Walker bodies, "this would have broken her. During things like this you reach a point where the survivors are one of two types of people. Ones like Daryl who seem made for this world - who fit in better here than they did before, and people who can adapt and learn new skills - those that can learn to deal. Daniella would never have learned to adapt and she was definitely not made to be in this world."

Emerson nodded, she wasn't sure what to say to that, but she wished she could say something. She wished she knew the right thing to say. She turned to look at Daryl, looking at him with new eyes. T-Dog was right, Daryl was made for a world like this. She thought about the little she knew about Daryl's life before the Walkers. His father was abusive, his mother had left when he was a young toddler, the only constant in his life had been his older brother who was in and out of juvie as Daryl was growing up. He had needed to be tough from the beginning, learned fairly early on that he could only ever rely on himself, that trusting people led to him getting hurt. She was so thankful for him, for all that he had done for her, but she was sorry for him too. Sorry that he owed his own survival to the fact that he had been abandoned and abused as a child. He was made for this world, had proved it several times over when saving her life. But in this moment she found herself wishing that he hadn't been treated the way he had been. She wished that he was softer.

"Whatcha starin' at woman?" Daryl asked when Emerson and T-Dog finally made it over to him. She had been staring at him for a while. She shrugged, not about to tell him she and T-Dog had been talking about him. That would make him uncomfortable. Daryl nodded, seemingly unconcerned about the fact that she wasn't going to tell him. "Well, come on in. Matt's real excited about the room he picked out for us. He's still convinced that he and I are going to be roommates, you know?"

And just like that the spell was broken. Emerson was able to relax again. Daryl may have been mistreated during his childhood, he may have been uncomfortable with people caring about him. But he was working on it, trying to get better. And that was because of Emerson. She smiled at him and held her hand out to him, silently asking him to hold her hand. She thought that he wouldn't do it, that he would wait until they weren't around other people. But he surprised her by grabbing her hand and giving it a gentle squeeze before he turned around and pulled her into the dorm building.

* * *

Author's Note:  
Once again I'm sorry. I'm so sorry you had to wait this long for this chapter.  
But I hope that you liked it! Thank you for stopping by and reading.  
Special thanks goes to: _LoneWolfPack, Malachite16819, Margo0121, .14, Serenityz, Suz Singer, SweetCaroline87, OrangeGumDrop, novagillis, WaverlyWhimsy, Lilly72, _and _jjbrc19_ who added this story to their Favorites List. And to: _LoneWolfPack, Margo0121, NamedBullet, WaverlyWhimsy, WildPenguinHawks, Tarot Card from Cheapside, courtn3ys, .14, Adriana Afton, Fallen-Autumn-Leaves, Serenityz, SweetCaroline87, junuijo21, OrangeGumDrop, jjbrc19, _and _ .H _who added this story to their Alerts List.  
But as always the **BIGGEST** of special thanks goes to those of you who **REVIEWED** on the last chapter:  
**JoFrench22: **Oh! I love readers like you that just pop in for one chapter and end up reading the entire thing! I'm so glad that you're enjoying this story so far and I hope that you liked this chapter too. Don't worry, Daryl and Emerson should manage to stay alive the entire time. And yes, I'm thinking this story is making its way toward them having sex. They just have to work through some issues first.  
**mischieflover: **Raging fangirl hormones! I have those too! I had so many during last night's episode. I watched it with my boyfriend and he asked me if he should be worried about me running away to Georgia to stalk and marry Norman Reedus. I told him he probably should worry about that. (He thought I was joking ... I wasn't.) You feel like something bad's about to happen? Hmmm... I wonder why you would feel like that ;D.  
**Gaby de Brabant: **I never get tired of reading that you loved the chapters, dear. I hope that you liked this one as well! And Norman might follow you on twitter if you tweet about the mole. It's a damn sexy mole. I hope you moved away from the computer while I took my unenjoyable week long vacation. I'm sorry for making you wait so long.  
**DBugMom: **You're welcome for the mush. (Forewarning: there will also be mush in the next chapter. So enjoy it!) And there is no such thing as being too into this show. It's like religion. At least to me. And I am so complimented that you think about my characters while watching the show. At least I'm not the only one, huh?  
**JerZeeSkyLine: **You are famous! I'm so glad that you liked the last chapter and your Walker self. (If you read the reviews a lot of people got very nervous about you. I liked that.)  
**DancingUnderMoonlight18: **That's what I was thinking when I wrote the last chapter. Like, I know there are zombies wandering around eating people, but their whole life can't be about Walkers. They've got to have time where they can still be happy. I'm trying to give them that, while still staying true to the show and dealing with the Walkers. Hopefully I'm succeeding. And I am so sorry I didn't get to spoil you with another update... real life has this nasty habit of getting in the way sometimes.  
**HeartyJessica: **New reviewer! Hello! (Are you a new reviewer? I think so, but I might be wrong.) Anyway, I'm glad that you enjoyed the last chapter and I hope that you liked this one as well! You'll soon learn, I'm kind of a fan of banter. :D It's my specialty.  
**ResidentGoth: **I'm so glad that you enjoyed vulnerable Daryl. I like to think that he's in character. And sometimes the show proves me right (like in last night's episode when Daryl found out about Merle and looked like he was going to cry with excitement. I was like Ha! My Daryl is totally cannon!)  
And yes, I'm a yankee, although I haven't lived there in a while so I'm not so sure if it counts anymore.  
And yeah, the Governor. Don't get me started on him. I want to shoot him for threatening Daryl (and even Merle) but come on! When Michonne did what she did! And Penny! I felt so bad for him! Poor guy. Sort of...  
**SilverAdvenger12: **I'm glad you liked the last chapter and I hope that you liked this one too!  
**FanFicGirl10: **I'm sorry it took me so long to update. But I hope you liked this chapter. And don't worry... the hook up might be coming soon!  
**EntwinedLove: **I'm so glad that you loved the last chapter and I hope you liked this one as well! Don't worry about not reviewing all the time, I'm just happy that you review occasionally! And thank you for the edits, don't worry totally not nitpicky. I appreciate it. I try to edit my chapters, but the problem is that I know what I'm trying to say so when I read it I miss things some times. You gave me the push I needed to ask for a Beta reader. So thank you!  
**Ambray: **I love that you say you wouldn't stop people from doing what they love, but some just aren't good at it. I hope this story is one of those gems you talked about.  
And don't worry, Darren's group is coming up again in the story very soon... I have the chapter outlined right now. (And the Governor himself might be making an appearance soon... I'm just trying to work out how. I'm excited though!)  
**Huzzah-94: **I'm so sorry! You were so excited and I let you down. Real life sucks sometimes. But I hope that you enjoyed this chapter all the same. And I'm going to try to make it up to you real soon! Thank you so much for your review and your patience! I also love that you gave them a name! **EMERYL! I LOVE IT!  
****Ravennn: **I'm glad that you liked the coupley mush! And that you love the way I write! That's a HUGE compliment. So thank you! As you wished they broke into the school and they're going to keep on clearing in later chapters. As far as new locations go the school's going to be where they stay for a while, but that doesn't mean the story's done yet. Not by a long shot so don't worry about that yet.  
**Enchantment11: **Hello! Thank you for your review! I'm so glad that you've enjoyed the story so far and I hope that you liked this chapter as well! I'm honestly so glad that you're hooked!  
**Malachite16819: **He is a bit of a perv, but can you blame him? It's been a while I would assume.  
**Readergirl66: **Thank you for your review! I'm glad you liked the last chapter and I hope that you liked this one as well!  
**SweetCaroline87: **I'm so glad that this is your new favorite story! That made my day! I'm honestly glad that you enjoy the characters and the story line! Thank you.  
**Adriana Afton: **So many compliments... you guys have me blushing! You have no idea how much it means to hear that I keep the characters in ... character. I'm constantly worried that I've messed that up some how. So thank you! And I could never turn Daryl into a pansy ... I wouldn't like him that way.  
**tonitangible: **No, thank you for reviewing. Trust me, when I started this story it was just like mental masturbation (excuse the term ... but like it was in my head and it wouldn't leave me alone until I wrote it). I was honestly thrilled by the response I got, I am so glad that you guys are enjoying it.  
And I'm glad that you dropped everything to read this story. That is a **HUGE** compliment. I hope that you liked this chapter too. (And thank you for bringing up the Harry Potter! I'm so glad that you caught on to what I was trying to say ... I mean, a major part of this story is the Walkers. But an even bigger part of this story is that these people somehow managed to hold onto what made them human DESPITE the Walkers.)  
**MagicalElf73: **Aww, the two haven't gotten it yet, but they will. I have to figure out how to write a sex scene without it sounding like one of those cheesy romance novels with that creepy guy on the cover. I know how to have sex, but I'm not sure I know how to write it. Thank you for your review dear, and I hope you liked this chapter too!  
** .H: **Oh goodness! Six reviews from you! I love it! I'm so glad that you're enjoying the story and that you treated me to a play by play of your responses to the chapter! I hope that you liked the most recent chapters too!  
Phew that took me almost an hour just to respond to your reviews!  
Thank you for that! I enjoy it.  
Hopefully I'll be updating again tomorrow, though it might be Wednesday.  
I've got three papers due tomorrow night and I've only started one of them.  
Anyway, until next time, happy reading!  
Hugs and kisses,  
Chloe Jane.


	30. Chapter Twenty-Nine

Disclaimer: I do not own the Walking Dead, although I'm completely obsessed with it and wished I did. Emerson, however, I do own.

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Long live **EMERYL**!  
(that is all.)

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Special thanks to the two people who offered to be my Beta.  
I am in the process of making my decision and will get back to you soon!  
(I might have to ask you some questions before I make my final decision so watch for those.)

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* * *

Chapter Twenty-Nine:

Daryl woke up to the sound of someone screaming the next morning. He sat up straight in the bed, his breathing heavy as he grabbed his crossbow off the ground and leveled it, looking for the source of the noise. It took him a moment or two before he realized two things. The first of which was that the screaming wasn't the sound of a terrified person fighting off a Walker attack, but rather the happy noise of someone who was excited about something. The second thing he realized was that Emerson and Matt were no longer in the bed with him. He shook his head as he climbed out of the bed, Emerson was going to have to get rid of this habit of sneaking out of bed. He didn't like waking up without her.

Matt had done what Emerson had asked the day before. He had found a dorm suite with a living room and two bedrooms, a single and a double. Emerson and Daryl had sat him down and explained to him that he would be sleeping in the single room and that they would be roommates in the double. Then while Daryl moved the two twin beds together in the double room Emerson had helped Matt make his bed and set up his few belongings around his room. Daryl liked the set up, Emerson had some blankets and sheets for a queen sized bed so they would have a large bed and Matt's room was right next door, the closest room to the living room with the fire place. Emerson's brother would be close to her without being in the same room as them.

Once they had made the beds the three of them had set about sorting through the belongings left behind by the college students that had lived in the room. All the personal items - the pictures, posters, diaries, computers, unneeded things like movies, and most of the clothes were piled in a room at the end of the hall with the personal belongings from all the other dorm rooms. Any non-perishable food was brought to the floor kitchen a couple of rooms down. All extra bedding and useful supplies like batteries, flashlights, books, games, clothes that would fit people in the group, shoes, first aid supplies, and cleaning supplies were brought to the large common room that was connected to the floor kitchen. Members of the group sorted through the rooms they would be staying in first before they moved on to the rooms that were going to be unused, they wanted all the supplies they could get. It took them almost all afternoon to sort through the rooms just on their floor. The next day they would clear out the first and second floors. From what Daryl could tell most of the dorms were set up the same way. Each one had a small private living room with some furniture and a fire place, a bathroom, and one or two bedrooms. The women seemed to really like the privacy it would afford them.

Maggie and Glenn had taken a suite with a single room. Beth would be staying with Carol in a double room next door. Next to them would be Hershel and T-Dog. On Maggie and Glenn's other side was Daryl, Emerson, and Matt. And next to them Rick, Lori, and Matt. It was a nice set up because while it afforded the group privacy and the ability to spread out a bit, they were still close together incase something went wrong.

But if Daryl had thought that having two bedrooms would allow him some time alone with Emerson he had been wrong. Matt had gotten scared the night before, nervous about sleeping in a new place and had crawled into bed with Emerson and Daryl before the two had even settled in for the night. Emerson had looked at Daryl apologetically over her brother's head after he crawled in between them, snuggling into Emerson's side. But Daryl knew that the redhead wasn't going to be able to say no to her brother. He had sighed and nodded. They would have their alone time once she was sure that Matt was okay and that the boy didn't need her.

But now, Daryl had woken up, the light coming in through the shuttered windows suggested that it was morning, not too early but not yet afternoon, and Matt and Emerson were no where to be found. And he could still hear the noise of happy screams coming from outside. He quickly put on a shirt and still holding his crossbow he left the room, headed for the widow's walk at the top of the building so that he could find where his woman and her brother had gone off to. He smiled a good morning to Hershel who was keeping watch when he made it to the roof. The old man nodded to him, "Looking for Emerson?" he asked, a knowing smile resting on his lips. "She's down there," he added before Daryl could even ask. He nodded toward the car lot.

"What are they doing?" Daryl asked as he looked down on the field where Emerson, Beth, Maggie, Glenn, Matt, and Carl were running around, throwing something back and forth as they ran. Hershel explained to him that Matt had found a football the day before and that the group had headed down to the lot for a game of touch football when they woke up. Rick had decided that they could take the morning off to play a game. He, T-Dog, and Carol were going to join the game, they were just waiting for Daryl. Daryl nodded, his eyes lighting on Emerson as she caught a pass from Maggie and began to run toward what must have been the boys' team's end zone. Glenn ran toward her, but instead of tackling her he picked up the small redhead and spun her around, her own giggles mixing with the Asian's laughter. "Seems like something Em would suggest," Daryl said with a nod.

"She's good with stuff like this," Hershel said with a nod of his own. "With knowing when the group needs to take a little break and have some fun. It gets too serious in this world sometimes. The children need some fun. We all do." Daryl nodded, the old man was right. They did need some fun every once in a while and Emerson was good at knowing when they needed it. The group was lucky to have her and Matt, luckier than Emerson knew and liked to admit. He asked if Hershel needed anything before he went down to the lot to play, Hershel said that he was fine, he and Lori would be staying in the dorm building so he wouldn't be alone. "Have fun, and tell the teams that I'm rooting for the girls," the older man said in parting.

Carol and T-Dog joined the girls' team while Rick and Daryl joined Glenn, Matt, and Carl. At first Daryl thought that the boys' team would win the game easily. For the most part they were stronger and able to run faster than the girls. But T-Dog was a definite advantage and he soon realized that having the two young boys on the team was a disadvantage. Within a matter of thirty minutes or so the game had deteriorated from a game of touch football to a game of tag with a football involved. By the end of the hour it had basically just become chasing the girls around the field. By the time they stopped for lunch it had become simply chasing Maggie around the lot because she refused to give the football back.

Hershel had been right. When the group returned to the dorm building for lunch in the large common living room everyone's spirits were higher than Daryl had ever seen them. The group was talking and joking as though nothing in the world had changed, as if everything was fine and safe. This was what they had needed. Even with Rick talking about sorting through the other floors that afternoon and figuring out how to work the solar powered generator no one looked as though they believed the world was a hopeless place anymore. Who would have believed that a simple game of touch football would have done that. He couldn't even find it in himself to argue when Emerson sat down next to him and informed him that she and Rick had talked about it and the next day she would be helping the men clear out the second dorm building. He couldn't say no to the girl. He was sure that was going to become a problem.

-.-.-.-.-

The group made quick work of the remaining two floors of their dorm building after lunch. They stocked up on extra blankets and more nonperishables. With the supplies and hunting trips, they would be pretty well-stocked for the rest of the winter with limited raids to stores outside of the school. Hershel was already thinking about trying to find seeds to plant in the car lot in the spring and Maggie and Emerson were already making plans for a raid for formula for the baby, they were going to need formula before the baby was born in case it made it through the delivery and Maggie figured that it would be better to get it early than to wait until the last minute. All in all the group was in good spirits by the end of the evening.

They had found some guitars in some of the dorm rooms when they were looking for supplies. Instead of dragging them to the room of useless supplies at the end of the hall Emerson had demanded that they keep at least one of them. Glenn grabbed the other one, remembering the guitar he had at the farm. The two were sitting on the floor in front of the fire, Emerson had taught Glenn how to play a song - some up beat number that Daryl had never heard before, but he was beginning to like it. Glenn had been horrible at first, but now - a few hours after Emerson had started teaching him he had finally gotten the hang of it. Emerson cheered and stopped strumming her own guitar so that she could clap her hands when Glenn made it all the way through the song with only a few mistakes. "Good job!" she congratulated, still strumming her guitar even though they weren't singing anymore. "The chorus one more time?"

Glenn nodded and started strumming his guitar with Emerson again. She nodded, "One, two, three," she counted them into the chorus, tapping her foot against the floor to the beat. "I belong with you, you belong with me. You're my sweetheart. I belong with you, you belong with me. You're my sweetheart," they sang, harmonizing with each other. It wasn't the best harmony Daryl had ever heard, but it wasn't anything to complain about and considering that they hadn't heard music since the Walkers started to attack it was the best he'd heard in a while. Besides, he couldn't get over the way Emerson's sparkling green eyes had found him when she was singing the chorus. Daryl wasn't used to attention or open displays of affection - that was no secret. Things like that made him uncomfortable. But it was different with Emerson, with the way she was looking at him when she sang. He waited to feel uncomfortable, to get nervous. But all he felt was pride, pride at the fact that a girl like Emerson Phillips would ever be interested in a guy like him.

He hadn't realized that he was staring at her until Matt poked him in the side. "Could you stop staring at my sister?" the eight year old asked, a glare on his face. Daryl started, he knew that Emerson had told Matt about the fact that they were dating and she had said that her little brother was okay with it, but this kid did not seem okay with the way Daryl was looking at his sister. He quickly apologized and looked away from Emerson. But his apology was answered with a laugh from the young boy. "T-Dog told me to do that," the boy explained at Daryl's questioning glance. "He said that you'd be funny. He was right."

"Oh you better run boy," Daryl threatened, half playful, half honest. He started to get up out of his chair and laughed when Matt emitted a high pitched squeak and quickly ran out of the main living room, to hide in one of the dorm rooms. He shook his head and sat back down in his chair, flashing his middle finger in the air at T-Dog in revenge instead of chasing the young child down the hallway.

"What was that for?" Emerson asked. She and Glenn had put the guitars away for the night and she had moved over to sit on the ground next to Daryl's chair. "And where's Matt?" Daryl jerked his head toward the hall outside the floor common room. A worried look crossed over Emerson's face. Matt wasn't the only one who was having trouble getting used to a safe place. Daryl sighed, and told her that the dog was with the boy and that he was safe. "Sorry," Emerson whispered her apology. "I'm not used to him just being able to run off without me," she admitted. Daryl nodded, he understood what she meant. She stared after her brother for another few seconds before she sighed, "I'm going to go find him," she said softly, "get him ready for bed and talk to him about tomorrow. I still haven't told him that I'm going to help you guys clear the dorm tomorrow. I should probably tell him so that he doesn't wake up alone ."

Daryl nodded and held out his hand to the redhead to help her off the ground. She held onto his hand for a moment longer before she walked away. Daryl stared after her as she left the room, he only looked away to throw a book at T-Dog when he joked about how whipped Daryl was.

Emerson could hear T-Dog and Daryl from the hallway, she couldn't help the laugh that escaped her lips when she heard the book hit T-Dog. "Hey Matty?" she called as she walked down the hallway looking for her brother. "Why don't you come out, buddy?" Matt complained as he came out of the supply room, he told his sister that he wasn't tired. Emerson smiled when her brother yawned in the middle of his statement. "Yup," she said with a nod. "It sure looks like you're not tired. Come on, let's get you ready for bed. I've got to talk to you about something."

Emerson relit the fire in the living room while she waited for Matt to brush his teeth with boiled water and change into his pajamas. "Are you sleeping in your room or mine?" she asked her brother when he walked out of the bathroom.

"I think I'm going to stay in my room," Matt said with a nod. "But you won't get mad at me if I come into your room in the middle of the night?"

Emerson smiled at her brother and held her arms open to him so that she could hug him. "Of course I won't get mad, honey," she said as she scooped her brother into her arms and carried him into his bedroom. "Now let's get you in bed, huh?" Matt nodded sleepily and allowed her to tuck him into his bed before he asked her what she needed to talk to him about. Emerson sighed, "When you wake up tomorrow I'm not going to be here. Now I don't want you to worry," she added quickly when she saw her brother's face contort into a worried look. "I'm going to be with Daryl, and Rick, and Glenn. Everything's going to be fine. I'm just going to help them clear the other dorm building okay? We're just looking for other supplies."

"And killing Walkers?" Matt asked, his voice slightly angry.

"And killing Walkers," Emerson said with a nod. "Hey," she soothed when she saw her brother looked even angrier. "I have to do this, Matty. The dorm building has to be cleared, along with the other buildings. They need to be cleared so that we're really safe here. And I'm going to be fine. I promise."

Apparently that was the wrong thing for her to say because Matt's face darkened even more. "No!" he yelled. "That's a lie. You say that every time and that's never what happens. You're lying! You're not going to be okay. Just like that time a Walker almost killed you when we were clearing the lot. Or when Daryl found you in the woods. You told me you'd be fine then and you weren't! Stop lying!" Emerson tried to calm her brother down, she tried to wrap him in her arms and tell him that she was sure that everything was going to be fine, but Matt pushed her away from him. "You're lying!" he yelled. "Get out of here! I hate you!" Emerson stared at her brother for a moment, sure that he was going to take back his statement but he didn't. He angrily wiped away the tears that were sliding down his cheeks and he yelled at her again. "I said get out of here!"

"I promise you, Matt," she said softly. "I will always come back to you." She waited for his response, but was only met with an angry silence, he was ignoring her. She nodded and quickly left Matt's room, shutting the door behind her. She didn't realize that she was crying until she saw the sympathetic look on Daryl's face when she ran into him in the hallway. She apologized to him for crying and tried to move past him so that she could go to the common room and apologize to the whole group for the noise, but Daryl stopped her and moved her back toward their bedroom. "Let's get you to bed too," he said, his voice soothing and quiet. Emerson wanted to argue with him, she wanted to tell him that she was fine. But after what Matt had said to her the last thing she wanted to do was to start another fight.

-.-.-.-.-

Daryl hadn't argued when Emerson told him that she was going to help the men clear the other dorm building. Rick had already agreed with her, had already told her that she could help. And Daryl knew that there was no point in arguing with the red head. She had made up her mind. Nothing he could do or say would change that decision now. Still, when he woke up the next morning he hoped that she had forgotten, that she would sleep in and wake up too late to help clear the building.

She didn't though. She woke up just as Daryl was putting his shirt on. "I hope that you weren't being quiet so that I'd sleep through this morning," she whispered, her green eyes sparkling playfully.

"I wouldn't dream of it," Daryl answered sarcastically as he threw a shirt at the girl to wear that day. He started looking for his shoes so that he could give her some privacy while she changed, but Emerson didn't seem to care. She stood up from the bed and pulled the shirt she had slept in over her head so that she could change. "Oh," Daryl said quietly when he turned around to see the skinny girl wearing a pair of pajama pants and a black bra. "Fuck," he muttered to himself when he felt a blush rising on his cheeks.

"This is new," Emerson said, her gentle smile shifting to a smirk when she recognized the man's discomfort. She didn't put her shirt on, she chose instead to move closer to Daryl. "Daryl Dixon blushing," she teased, her smirk grew. "You've seen a woman wearing less than I am right now, I'm sure," she pointed out. They had never talked about their past love lives, but Emerson was sure that Daryl had seen his fair share of naked women. "What's wrong, Dare?" she asked when he remained silent. "Is there something wrong with me?" she pressed.

"God no," Daryl said as he shook his head and turned away from Emerson. "There's nothin' wrong with you," he muttered. "Trust me on that one. It's just different." Emerson raised her eyebrows and asked Daryl how it was different - she didn't understand. Daryl was quiet for a minute, trying to find a way to explain his thoughts in a way that would make sense to her. "That was fuckin," he finally settled on. "That was fuckin' and this won't be."

Emerson didn't say anything for a moment. Daryl heard her moving around behind him and when he finally turned to face her again she was fully dressed, staring at him with wide, sad eyes. She took a tentative step forward and paused, silently asking Daryl for permission to get close to him. He nodded and she slowly continued forward until she was staring directly in front of him. "You've only ever fucked women, huh?" she asked, her voice gentle and soft. Daryl nodded and something changed in Emerson's eyes, they were softer now - less sad. She nodded too, "Okay then," she said softly as if everything had been settled. She stood up on her tiptoes and pressed a kiss onto Daryl's cheek before she moved away to put her combat boots on.

Daryl stood still, he stared at Emerson in surprise, waiting for her to bring up the subject again. But it seemed that the woman understood how difficult the discussion was for him and she had decided to drop it. "Okay then," he said with a nod of his own as he stooped to put his own boots on. Emerson's answering grin was enough to tell him that everything was going to be just fine.

They quickly finished getting ready and prepared to head toward the common room where they were meeting Glenn and Rick (T-Dog was on watch duty that day). Emerson quickly ducked into Matt's room so that she could give him a kiss before they left. She was careful to be quiet, after the night before the last thing she wanted to do was wake the boy up and risk another fight. She had meant it when she promised her brother that she would always come back to him. That was all he needed to know or worry about. Once she had kissed Matt she patted Lou on the head, "Take care of him today," she whispered to the dog before she left the room and followed Daryl to the common room.

The air in the common room was very different from the field when the group had prepared to clear the school. The people weren't as worried as they had been before. Clearing the school had been easier than they expected, four men had cleared the dorm building in a matter of hours. Only one or two Walkers had been spotted the day before and they had been taken care of quickly. Everything seemed to be going in their favor. Carol had woken up early to make oatmeal for the group for breakfast and even Lori was smiling which was rare on days when Rick was going to lead a group against Walkers.

Rick gave the group a brief pep talk while they ate and within thirty minutes Rick, Glenn, Daryl, and Emerson were standing outside of the second dorm building, discussing the best way to clear the building. They decided that Rick and Daryl would start on the first floor and work their way up while Emerson and Glenn would climb the fire escape, get in through a window, and clear from the third floor down. Daryl had an initial problem with Emerson being paired with Glenn. Rick had stopped the brewing fight between Daryl and Emerson by turning to Daryl and saying, "I need you watching my back." Daryl couldn't argue with that.

He had sighed and nodded before he pulled Emerson away from Rick and Glenn so that he could press a kiss to her lips. "Come back to me," he muttered. It was an order, not a request.

Emerson nodded at him and smiled, her green eyes sparkling. "I always do," she promised before she kissed him one final time and turned to head back to Glenn.

* * *

Author's Note:  
Hey dolls! Thank you for stopping by once again to read the newest chapter.  
And thank you for your patience. Finals have been grueling and I'm only halfway through them. (blah)  
But I thought I'd take a break to listen to some Christmas Music and post the newest chapter of mush.  
Happy couplely mush. (Though I can guarantee in the next two or so chapters I won't be so nice. :P)  
Special thanks goes to: _OllyMursLover, Whitney Lin, dancngurl153 _and _Ruckyourworld_ for adding this story to their Favorites List. **(Side note to ****_Ruckyourworld_**** - do you play rugby? I do, our team shirts said that last year ... "Give me 90 minutes, I'll ruck your world." Anyway... moving on.)** Special thanks also goes to: _stacikate16, Hannah5trange, ObsidianBttrfly, RKO.I.F, Spark and Fire, geeklover988, pahwinchester, _and _HiStinYDaNcER_ for adding this story to their Alerts List.  
But as always the **LARGEST, BIGGEST, HUGEST** of special thanks goes to those of you that have **REVIEWED**:  
**SilverAdvenger12**: Thank you so much for your review dear! I'm glad that you liked the last chapter! And yes! Daryl's face. I wanted to cry, but I'm a slightly crazy fangirl so I want to cry a lot. February is too long. How am I supposed to celebrate Christmas without the Walking Dead? And what if the world ends on December 21st? I'm not okay with not knowing what happens to Daryl and Merle.  
**Mischieflover: **Aww! You weren't the only one who thought I had died. _ResidentGoth_ sent me a PM on here wondering the same thing. But nope, I'm here, thankfully with nothing to worry about anymore besides final grades. We do need a time machine ... I can't handle waiting until February. What am I going to do on Sunday nights? (Though I might make my boyfriend stay in with me on New Years for AMC's marathon maybe... he probably won't like that though.) I'm glad that you liked the last chapter and I hope you liked this one too!  
**Signora Ted: **Don't feel like you betrayed me dear! People are busy, I understand that. I'm just happy that you're still here. :D You have no idea how excited I am about the fact that my Daryl is almost becoming cannon! (And that so many people watch the show and think about my story - I'm not the only one who gets confused and disappointed when Emerson isn't in an episode! Yes!) And oh no! Mustache man - I almost felt bad for him, but then I started laughing instead.  
**ResidentGoth: **Yeah, I made the mistake of watching the latest episode with my father. And he couldn't understand why I kept yelling things like, "RIGHT IN THE FEELS!" at the television whenever Daryl looked like he was about to cry. The General just doesn't understand fangirling. Which is a shame, if you ask me. Fangirling's pretty fun.  
**Readergirl66: **Thank you so much for offering to be my beta! I'll be reading your chapter as soon as I finish posting this (and working on some homework) and I'll get back to you! I'm so glad you liked the last chapter and I hope you liked this one too!  
**Gaby de Brabant: **Hello dear! I feel like you and I are becoming review best friends. Your reviews always make me smile! I'm relieved and happy to be back too. I'm so glad that you liked the last chapter and I hope that you enjoyed this one too (even if you did have to wait two days for it.) It was another quiet chapter, but it's setting the group up for some BIG things coming up. I'm really excited. And I love that you offered to help beta my chapters (even if it was only so that you could read the chapters first. :p)  
**OllyMursLover: **Hello new reviewer! Thank you so much for stopping by to read my story and for reviewing! I'm glad that you liked the last chapter and I hope that you enjoyed this one too.  
**Kay1104: **I do feel better. Throat's still a little sore, but all that means is I have an excuse to eat lots of ice cream over the next few days. :D I hope you enjoyed this chapter!  
**SweetCaroline87: **I love this review. And this story. And you! Thank you for all the love! 333  
**FanFicGirl10: **I do feel lots better, thank you! I'm glad you liked Em and T-Dog. He didn't get enough love on the show and now that he's gone I'm just trying to give him love. He deserves it. I hope you liked this chapter as well.  
**DancingUnderMoonlight18: **I'm more than happy that you seem to have loved everything in the last chapter! I'm seriously grinning as I write this! And don't worry about real life, I think I finally have it under control again (knock on wood). You are right, the holidays are almost here. Although it was close to 70 degrees for the last few days. That should not be allowed in December. I want snow! But enough about the weather ... I agree with you February needs to hurry up and get here already ... like yesterday. I hope that you enjoyed this chapter by the way!  
**Aziexxx: **So you reviewed on the prologue, hopefully you stuck around long enough to get to chapter twenty-nine. I'm glad that you liked the prologue, especially the last two sentences. Those were my favorites too!  
**JDMlvr1: **I'm glad you liked the last few chapters and I hope that you liked this one as well. I didn't get to update yesterday, but the good news is that I will be halfway done all my exams and final papers by tomorrow night. (Does that count as good news?)  
**biancastefani: **I'm glad you're back, darling! But there you go, making me blush again. What with this talk about this story is one of your all time favorites and not just a favorite from the WD fandom. Totally blushing and grinning at the praise right now. I'm glad that you liked the last chapter, especially the part about Theodore. He was always one of my favorite characters too and he really never got enough screen time. It was a shame.  
Why do they have to take a midseason break? Why is that necessary? Is it because they're worried they won't have viewers over the holidays? Because I'd watch new episodes, even if it was Christmas Eve or something like that. But if you watch the preview really carefully they show a clip of Daryl running over a bridge getting shot at (but they miss him!) no Merle though.  
**fireflyandowl: **For a new reviewer you sure spoil me! First with your offer to be my beta and then you're glowing review! I don't mean to scare you, but I think I love you. (I hope you read that in Forrest Gump's voice, because that's how I said it.) I'm glad that I've created good back stories and substance for the characters and that I've done T-Dog justice - you're right, he did always seem like a crutch type thing for other characters.  
As far as romance, if you can't tell from this chapter it's coming. I do have more planned for them in the (hopefully) near future.  
**isopt: **Oh I wish I could update every hour for you guys! You are the best readers I could ask for! Unfortunately I could only do that if I was being paid to write. :p But I'm back, and definitely not dead. :D  
**Chris.H: **Hopefully my story isn't the reason that you didn't get caught up on other things. :p I am glad that you're all caught up with the story though! And I am so excited that you like my Daryl! I'm very big on still keeping him emotionally stunted, but I want growth. Although the "peeing on her" that's right up Daryl's ally whether he's growing or staying a man-child. :D Not to give away any spoilers, but Jackson might come back... though I'm not sure if he'll be there to help or not.  
**Huzzah-94: **You're more than welcome for the update! Thank you for the review! I'm glad that you liked the last chapter and I hope that you liked this one too!  
**Embers in the flames: **BLUSHING. That's what I'm doing right now, and when I'm not typing I'm hiding my face with my hands because that's what I do when I blush. I am sincerely happy that you're hooked to the story and that you missed my writing (does that make me a horrible person?) You're more than welcome, thank you for reading and taking your time to review! I hope that you liked this chapter. :D  
**MagicalElf73: **Part of me is beginning to think that Matt was just playing with Emerson and Daryl when he told them that he and Daryl were going to be roommates. I don't know how much awareness eight year olds have, it's been a while since I was eight. But my little brother, I can see him saying something like that just to watch Em and Daryl squirm for a bit. They're not always as innocent as they seem. But you're right, AMC would have a huge riot if they killed Daryl. I'd be leading the mob with a pitchfork and a life-sized cardboard cut out of Daryl Dixon.  
**DBugMom: **They've got to know that everyone's favorite is Daryl. They're doing this to us because they know it hits us right in the feels. And then they make us wait until February! I'm pretty sure that the Geneva Convention banned torture... just saying. But yes, you will have me and Emerson to keep you company until the season continues again. :D  
**stacikate16: **Hello new reader and reviewer! I'm so glad that you found this story. I'm even happier that you couldn't stop reading it until you reached the newest chapter! Thank you so much for your review and I hope that you liked this chapter too!  
I'm beginning to wonder if I use exclamation points too much...  
Anyway, that's all I've got for now. You guys have **rocked my socks** with your support! Thank you! (see ... there they go again...)  
I'm going to try to update tomorrow, but it'll probably be Friday before I can update again.  
Until then, happy reading!  
Hugs and kisses,  
Chloe Jane.


	31. Chapter Thirty

Disclaimer: I do not own the Walking Dead, although I'm completely obsessed with it and wished I did. Emerson, however, I do own.

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This chapter is **Big**.  
But even more than that, it's setting up for some even  
**BIGGER** things. I'm so excited!  
Mwahahahahahahahaha

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Chapter Thirty:

"So have you two done it yet?" Glenn asked as he and Emerson began to climb up the fire escape. He laughed when Emerson flashed him a look that said she was insulted by his question. "What?" he asked. "It's a legit question."

"Have you and Maggie done it?" Emerson asked, turning the question around on the Asian and hoping that he would forget that he had asked her the question first.

"Of course we have," Glenn said with a nod as he continued climbing. "We did it before we got together. We were backwards like that. But back to my question. Have you and Daryl done it yet?"

Emerson shook her head, smiling slightly at the shocked look on Glenn's face when he saw her silent answer. He reached the third floor level and turned around, offering an Emerson a hand to help her over the top of the ladder. Emerson sighed when she reached the other side, they were waiting for Rick's signal before they went into the building, there was nothing to distract Glenn from his question. "When I first met him I was too busy not really trusting him to sleep with him. And then by the time I had started liking him we were in a car with my younger brother." Glenn flinched at that statement. He could see how that would put a damper on the mood. "And then we've been with you guys in cars ever since," Emerson said with a shrug.

"Except when you ran away to go back to your old house," Glenn pointed out.

"Right," Emerson said with a nod. "With my brother."Glenn nodded, his lips forming an, "O" shape as he understood her point. It looked as though he was about to ask her another question and Emerson couldn't help but smile when Rick whistled, the signal that they should enter the dorm building. Glenn's question would have to wait. She quickly lifted her eyebrows at the Asian before she let them drop again, "Ready to go?" she asked him with a grin before she lifted her leg and kicked her combat through a window, easily breaking the glass. "Cause I am."

The truth was that she had been itching for a fight since they had finished clearing the quad. She had tried to be okay with being left out when the men went to clear the dorm room, but that had been a lie. She felt useless if there were people fighting Walkers and she couldn't help. And useless was no a feeling that Emerson Phillips particularly enjoyed. But if she was expecting a fight on the third floor she was mistaken.

The floor was quiet, Glenn had been sure that the sound of the breaking glass would have caught the attention of any Walkers on the floor, but there weren't any in sight. That made him nervous. He held a finger to his lips and signaled that Emerson should follow him as he made his way down the hallway, his gun drawn. About halfway down the hallway Emerson grabbed his arm and gestured to the right, he turned to see a pile of furniture stacked in front of the doors that led to the stairs. Someone had barricaded the door. "Do you think students were stuck up here?" Emerson asked quietly. "When the Walkers first started attacking the school?"

Glenn shrugged, "If they were they're probably dead now. Must have starved to death in their rooms. We should start opening doors and clearing out the rooms." He was about to suggest that they stick together, but Emerson had already pulled out a second throwing knife and told him to start at one end of the hallway and that she would start at the other. They'd meet in the middle.

When he looked like he was going to argue Emerson sighed, "Come on, Glenn," she said, hoping that he would see reason. "It's not like neither of us have never cleared a room alone before. We can take care of ourselves and the sooner we're done on this floor the sooner we can help Daryl and Rick."

He nodded, she had a point. "Just be careful," he pleaded as Emerson began to jog to the end of the hallway. "Daryl will kill me if something happens to you."

"Same to you," Emerson said, turning around so that she could nod at Glenn. "And frankly I find Maggie a bit scarier than Daryl."

"That's because you've never come face to face with his crossbow," Glenn said, but Emerson had already gotten out of hearing range. He sighed and ran down to the end of the hallway near the fire escape so that he could start checking rooms. The first seven rooms he entered were completely empty. There was some furniture and some personal belongings but no Walkers. Sure, there was the sign of a struggle in a few of them, some blood, but nothing else. He opened one of the cupboards and was surprised to see that it looked like it had been cleared already, there were some crumbs and a few cheerios, but no food. That was strange. The eighth room was even stranger, he could smell them before he opened the door, he raised his gun and kicked the door open, shooting blindly until he realized that all the Walkers had already been killed. They were piled on the floor much like the group had done to Walkers when they took over a house when they were still on the road.

He quickly backed out of the room and prepared to call for Emerson to tell her that it was time to leave, that there was something wrong there. But he never got the chance because before he could get out of the room he heard Emerson scream from down the hall. "Emerson!" Glenn yelled, hoping that she would hear him and understand that he was coming to help her. He quickly ran out of the room with the Walkers and down the hall toward where Emerson had screamed. He could see her, she was about a fourth the way down her portion of the hallway. He had assumed that she had been attacked by a Walker, but it wasn't a zombie that had attacked her. That much was clear from the gun pressed against her temple and the strong arm that was wrapped around her, applying pressure to her neck, slowly choking her. "Let her go," Glenn commanded as he leveled his gun, pointing it at the man that held Emerson captive.

The man didn't look scared, or even concerned. He laughed, a deep, angry, menacing laugh, and flexed his finger on the trigger of his own gun. "You want to bet that you can pull the trigger faster than I can?" he growled. "Want to bet that you can beat me? That I won't be able to lodge a bullet into Little Mermaid's head before you pull the trigger? You want to make that bet?" Glenn's eyes drifted down to Emerson's hands that were scrambling at her neck, trying to pull the man's arm away from her throat so that she could breathe. The man's finger flexed on the trigger again and Glenn nodded, he got the man's point. He put the safety back on his gun and held it up in the air in surrender.

"Just loosen your arm a bit," he pleaded, nodding toward Emerson's throat. "Let her breathe. If you keep this up you'll kill her. And she can't die. You don't know what will happen if she dies."

The man laughed again. "You don't think we know what will happen if she dies? I've seen it. She'll turn into one of those, a biter. Wouldn't it be interesting if she died and I let her go. I'd have time to get back in the room and lock the door, but you. It'd be fun to watch one of your own eat you alive." But even as he said this, as he threatened Glenn, he loosened his arm so that Emerson could breathe.

She gulped, taking a deep breath of fresh air into her lungs before she talked. "I wouldn't attack him," she argued, shaking her head as she took in more air, unsure of how long she was going to have before the man's arm was tightening around her neck again.

The man shook his head, "You have no control over that, Little Mermaid. Once you turn you can't control who you go after. You won't be able to stop yourself, just because he's your boyfriend. You'll still go after him."

"No I won't," Emerson's voice was sure and strong. "Because," she added, turning to look at Glenn as the man's arm tightened over her throat again. "He would shoot me in the head before I got to him," she choked out, fighting for just a bit more air.

"Compassionate bunch you are," the man growled, glaring between Emerson and Glenn. "Guess I should have figured that, what with the way you boarded the doors to this place without even stopping to wonder if there were people inside. Sure, we've barricaded the stairs down to the lower levels, did it months ago. But they've been intent on getting up here, more intent since ya'll started moving around outside. It would have been a matter of days before they got up here." He seemed to realize that he had been rambling for too long. He glared at Emerson and Glenn, they were looking at each other, the two seemed to be having a silent fight. The Asian kept shaking his head toward the red head. The man growled when he realized what was happening, the girl was silently asking the boy to shoot, regardless of what would happen to her. "Get out of here before I kill you," he growled to Glenn.

Glenn shook his head, "Not without Emerson," he argued.

"No," the man shook his head. "Little Mermaid stays with us. An insurance policy. You get the hell out of here. And if she's lucky we'll shoot her in the head before we feed her to the biters." Glenn was going to argue, but the man had already backed into the dorm suite behind him and slammed the door. He heard something slide in front of the door, further barricading it as the lock was turned. There was a struggle on the other side of the door and he heard the man growl, "You little bitch!" before there was a clapping noise and the sound of a small body hitting the wall beside the door.

It was silent for a moment and Glenn was about to try to break into the room when he heard Emerson's voice sound from the other side of the door. "Go Glenn! Just go! Before he comes out and shoots you. Go get Daryl and Rick!"

He couldn't argue with her. There wasn't much that he was able to do on his own anyway. He would probably make things worse. Daryl and Rick would know what to do. He nodded, "We'll be back, Em," he yelled through the door before he ran to the end of the hall so that he could climb down the fire escape and go find Rick and Daryl on the lower two floors of the dorm building. "I promise!" he yelled through the window before he began climbing down the ladder.

Glenn climbed back in the school on the second floor. There were only a few Walkers on the second floor, it seemed that most of them had gone back down to the first floor when Rick and Daryl had broken into the building. He made quick work of the Walkers and began to walk down the stairs to help Daryl and Rick on the first floor. They met him in the stairwell. Rick gave him a nod to signify that first floor had been cleared. "Where's Emerson?" Rick asked. "Clearing the supplies out of the rooms upstairs?"

Glenn shook his head, unsure of how to explain what had happened to Emerson. Daryl hadn't seen him shake his head, the man had already started to climb up to the second floor. "Daryl," Glenn said, shaking his head. "She's not up there, Daryl."

"Did she go back to the dorm?" Daryl asked, turning around to facc Glenn. Glenn shook his head. "No," Daryl said, shaking his head. "She didn't get bit did she?"

Once again, Glenn shook his head. "They got her," he said. "They took her."

Daryl growled, "Walkers don't take people," he yelled, lunging forward so that he could grab Glenn by the throat and hold him against the wall, pinning him to it. "They don't get people. They bite them or they tear them apart. What do you mean they got her?"Glenn reached out and pulled Daryl's hand away from his throat so that he could talk. He told Rick and Daryl about the furniture barricading the stairs on the third floor. He told them that they had planned to split up, that the rooms had been empty of Walkers and supplies. He told them about the room that had been filled with dead Walkers. He told them about Emerson screaming and the man that held her captive. And finally, gulping on a huge breath of air because he was sure that Daryl was going to strangle him he told them about the threat the man had made to kill Emerson if Glenn didn't leave them alone. A strangled sounding growl escaped Daryl's lips as he lunged forward, causing Glenn's head to bang painfully against the wall behind him. "We've got to go get her!" Daryl ordered, already spinning around so that he could get to the fire escape and climb up to the third floor. "We can't leave her there."

"Daryl stop," Rick commanded, reaching out to stop his friend from going any further. "We will go get her, we won't leave her there. But let's be smart about this. Let's go back to the dorm and talk this over. We've got to come up with a plan."

"Talk this over?" Daryl growled angrily. "Come up with a plan? You heard him, Rick," he gestured toward Glenn, not even sparing a look at the Asian he was still furious at him for whatever part he had played in Emerson getting taken. "The man's already hit her, at least once. And he threatened her. What was it he said? That if she was lucky they'd shoot her in the head before they fed her to the Walkers! They're going to kill her! We don't need a plan, we know where she is. She's one and a half floors above us for fuck's sake! We need to get her."

"We need more people," Rick hissed back. "We don't know what's waiting on the other side of that door. We don't know the size of the group or how many weapons they have. They have to be tough, they've survived in the building this long. I will not take the risk of just going the three of us. We'll go back to the dorm, get more ammunition. Get T, Maggie, Carol even - if she wants to come. And then we'll come back to get Emerson. He threatened her because he himself felt threatened, if we leave, if only for a little bit that will take away the threat. She will be safe while we plan."

"And what if she ain't?" Daryl growled, turning to glare at Rick. He was beginning to see Rick's point. They couldn't just go in there guns blazing and expect everything to be okay. But he would never forgive Rick if something happened to Emerson when they were gone.

"Then you can blame me," Glenn said, stepping away from the wall so that he could get closer to Daryl. "You can blame me for what happened to Emerson. Hate me forever if you want to. Believe me, I won't argue with you if you want to do that. You'll have my permission."

"I ain't too sure I won't blame you forever as it is," Daryl growled, he sent a glare in Glenn's direction as he shouldered his crossbow and turned toward the fire escape again. This time he planned to climb down the ladder and head back to their own dorm building so that the group could plan how to rescue Emerson. "But I'll kill you if something happens to her. Take my word for it."

The group made its way out of the building and back toward their own. Daryl stopped outside the dorm building so that he could glare at the windows on the third floor. He wasn't sure which room Emerson was in or even if the people were looking out the windows, but he hoped they were. He hoped that they understood that he was going to kill each and every one of them for taking Emerson. It didn't even matter if they got her and she was safe. He would still kill them, for just threatening her. He was quiet as they walked across the quad to their dorm building. It wasn't until they were climbing the steps to the front door that he spoke again. "Fuck," he muttered, shaking his head. "Matt."

"Matt's fine," Glenn said softly, his face was nervous. As if he wasn't sure that Daryl wouldn't punch him in the face just for talking. "He was sleeping when we left. He's probably playing some game with Carl or petting Lou. The kid is going to be absolutely fine."

"I'm not worried about what the kid's doing," Daryl growled, glaring at Glenn again. "Someone's goin' to have to tell him about what happened to his sister. We can't keep him in the dark and hope that we'll get her out alive. We'll have to prepare him for that not happening." Glenn audibly gulped, he had been scared to tell Daryl about Emerson, but he hadn't even thought about the fact that someone would have to tell Matt. The last thing he wanted to do was to tell the eight year old that his sister had been kidnapped. Daryl shook his head, "I wasn't going to have you tell him, idiot. You'd probably just fuck that up too. I'll tell him. He should hear it from me. And then I can promise him that we'll get his sister back for him. That we won't give up." He turned to look at Rick, silently asking for the man's agreement that they wouldn't give up until they had gotten Emerson back. Rick nodded his silent agreement. Daryl nodded too, he turned back to look at the dorm building across the quad, "Don't worry, honey," he whispered, ignoring the two men standing next to him. He was talking to Emerson. "We're comin' to get you."

-.-.-.-.-

"So they're holed up in one suite?" T-Dog asked after Rick had explained the situation. Rick, Daryl, and T-Dog were sitting around the table waiting for Glenn to get back with the rest of the group. Rick hadn't planned on explaining the situation until the entire group was there but T-Dog had noticed that Emerson wasn't there right off the bat and had asked about her. Rick wasn't going to lie to him and tell him that Emerson was fine. But when he had told T-Dog that there had been a bit of a situation when clearing the other dorm building the man had demanded to know what happened. Daryl nodded, silently answering T-Dog's question. "Well that's good news at least," T-Dog said with a nod. "We know where they are as long as they don't try to switch rooms on us before we get there."

"They won't," Rick said, his voice firm. "All their supplies will be in that one room. They won't want to give them up. And we won't give them enough time to move all their supplies before we show up again. They won't have time to switch rooms."T-Dog nodded, like he had said, that was good news, they would know where they were attacking at least. He asked Rick how they were going to go about attacking the group in the dorm, but Rick silenced him quickly, the rest of the group was coming, he could hear them. He was going to have to explain the situation to them before they started to come up with a plan.

Glenn came into the common room followed by Carol, Maggie, Beth, and Lori. "Hershel and the boys are up on the roof," he explained as they sat down on one of the couches in front of the kitchen table. "I explained the situation to Hershel and he volunteered to stay up on the roof, watching the dorm. And I figured that the kids didn't need to hear what was going on just yet. Matt will freak out and honestly that's the last thing we need right now."

"Wait," Lori said, looking around the room. "What's going on? What's the situation? Why will Matt freak out?" Her eyes finished scanning the room and came to rest on her husband, "And where's Emerson?" Maggie, Beth, and Carol echoed the question too, Lori's initial question alerting them to the fact that the group was missing one of its members.

Rick sighed, "Emerson was kidnapped by a group that's been hiding out in the second dorm," he said, his voice calm. He was hoping that if he remained calm the rest of the group would manage to do the same. The last thing they needed was to have a panicked group. "But we will get her back."

Daryl shook his head and stood up from the table. "I'm going to go talk to Matt," he announced. "Kid deserves to know what's happening. Come get me when it's time to go. And don't take too long," he added as he started to leave the room. "Or I'll go on my own."

"You won't be alone," Glenn said with a nod.

"Of course you'll come with me," Daryl growled, "this is your fault." And then he left the room to go up to the roof. He asked Matt if he could help him with something and tried not to growl out of anger as the kid happily skipped down the stairs after him, talking about how he had found a new Harry Potter book for Emerson to read to him. And wondering if Daryl thought Em would start reading it before dinner or if he would have to wait until bed time. As an afterthought the kid wondered where Emerson was, he told Daryl that he needed to apologize to her for yelling at her the night before.

"She told me that she was going to come back," the kid explained as he followed Daryl into their suite. "She always keeps her promises. And I yelled at her. I hope she knows that I didn't mean it."

"She knows kid, trust me," Daryl said as he sat down on Matt's bed and patted the spot next to him for Matt to sit on.

Matt jumped up on the bed, "So what do you need my help with?" he asked the older man, looking around the room.

Daryl opened his mouth, he was going to tell Matt what happened, he had to. But he glanced down at the kid and he looked so happily unconcerned. Daryl was sure that they were going to get Emerson back, what gave him the right to ruin the kid's happiness and make him worry when everything was going to be fine? He didn't have the right. He sighed and glanced around the room again, they had only been there for two days and it was already a mess, not that it had been particularly clean before, it was a college dorm after all. "Your sister is over in the other dorm," he said, he didn't feel bad about that one, it was the truth. "She's sorting through the supplies over there. A group of us are going over there to help her out," another half truth. "What I think would be really nice for your sister is if you cleaned up this dorm for when she comes back. How about you put your clothes in the dresser? And your books and games on a shelf? You could put our clothes in the dresser in the other room. Maybe clean the bathroom? There's cleaning supplies somewhere? And then if you finish the dorm before we get back you and Carl could go organize the supply room so that we have room for the new supplies that we'll be bringing from the other dorm?" Matt looked like he was about to argue so Daryl tried one last tactic, "After what you said to her last night I know that she would think that doing this was a nice apology," he guilted the young boy.

Matt was nodding then, "Should I make the beds too?" he asked, his tone excited at the idea of an apology and surprise for his sister.

Daryl chuckled and wrapped his arm around the young boy's shoulders. He hugged the boy closer to him for a moment before he let him go. "I'm sure she'd love it if you made the beds, Matt."

"Then get off of it," the boy said as he jumped off the bed. Daryl nodded and quickly moved to the doorway. Matt was already working on the bed when the young boy turned to look at Daryl, "Thank you, Daryl," he said quickly. "You always take care of Emerson. That's really nice of you."

Daryl swallowed around a thickness in his throat, he hadn't really done a good job of taking care of Emerson that day, but he couldn't tell the kid that. "No problem, Kid."

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Author's Note:  
Thirty chapters (and a prologue). Can you guys believe it?  
I can't. Thank you guys for sticking with me this long! Hopefully you'll keep sticking around!  
Thank you so much for stopping by and reading this new chapter! Special thanks goes to: _that0nelittl3girl, Future Jarhead Girl, Gaby de Brabant, pollywallytron, _and _umms_ who added this story to their Favorites List. And special thanks to: _ikoss_, _umms, _and _Maddisonleechappell_ who added this story to their Alerts List.  
But as always the **BIGGEST** of special thanks goes to those of you that **REVIEWED** on the last chapter:  
**fireflyandowl: **You changed your name? Who were you before? And Hogwarts? You'll have to forgive me, I woke up early to post this before my exam. It's 07:30 and I'm having trouble working my brain. I hope you liked this chapter though!  
**Embers in the flames: **I'm sorry that Wednesday was so bad for you. I'm glad that my last update made you smile. :D And I hope that Thursday wasn't so bad for you and that today will be even better. (In part because I updated again and in part because it's the beginning of the weekend!)  
**mischieflover: **This one wasn't as fluffy. :D And I kind of love it. I'm trying to balance fluffy home life with the fact that there are dangerous things happening. I'm sure you've noticed the pattern... they get a particularly mushy moment and then I take it away. Mush should make you guys worried. :p And yeah, Matt was being a royal brat in the last chapter, but if you think about it - his fit is more understandable than any of Lori's throughout the entire series... he's at least a kid. I hope that you liked this chapter, by the way.  
**sparklekris39: **I hope that you had fun when you disappeared! And I'm happy that you came back to several new chapters! That's always good. I'm glad that you liked the last chapter (and "seriously love this story") and I hope that you liked this chapter too!  
**SweetCaroline87: **I had to throw it in there! I had to! Can you imagine him blushing? I can just barely imagine it... but then he starts cussing. Just trying to show that he's uncomfortable with emotions, he might feel them, but he has trouble expressing them. I'm glad that you liked the last chapter and I hope you liked this one as well!  
**Gaby de Brabant: **Aww Gaby! You are one of my sweetest reviewers! I'm so glad that you liked the last chapter even if it was a quiet one and I hope that this one didn't disappoint you. This chapter was big, but it's setting up for something even bigger. You guys have no idea what I've got coming toward you! Mwahahahahahaha!  
And don't worry about thanking me for responding to the reviews! It does take a while to respond to all of them, but the way I figure it is you take the time to not only read my story, but to review on it too then you deserve me taking the time to respond. Besides, I'm so thankful that I want to let you guys know individually how much I appreciate the reviews. They make my day!  
Don't worry, I will not abandon you guys! Especially not during the break! That would be cruel. And yes, Doll face, Little ass-kicker finally has a name, Emily Jane.  
**FanFicGirl10: **You weren't wrong. I'm sorry, but you were absolutely right. I hope that you liked this chapter though, even though I was a slightly cruel author. Hey! I could have left you guys right after Emerson was taken! That would have been even worse.  
**Signora Ted: **Aww! I get so excited when people say my Daryl is perfect! You have no idea how much that means to me! And no! I will not stop being "so damn awesome!" You readers are just going to have to deal with it. :D  
**ResidentGoth: **I've never watched SOA. I have a friend who watches it religiously. Like he stops texting when the show comes on. And this kid always texts back (at least to me... apparently he's loved me since seventh grade) so it's gotta be a big thing that he doesn't text me back. I don't understand it though... I don't know. What's it even about? Whenever I ask him he just says that I won't understand. And I hope you gave that boyfriend of yours a hug when he declared that he would be mad if Daryl or Glenn died. I share the sentiment.  
You totally should jump on the bandwagon of coupley mush! It's a lot of fun to write sometimes. And you do know that I'm having fun with that. I bring them close to having sex and then ... PSYCH! (Yes I just used that word.) But it will happen, don't worry. I have plans. I hope that you liked this chapter too, by the way!  
**Chris.H: **Don't worry, they will get their sumpin sumpin soon! I'm getting to the point that I need them to have it soon. Which means it's going to happen. But first my big things! And yeah, I lived in a dorm once, next door neighbors that had a girl friend or boyfriend were never any fun. They're gonna hate Maggie and Glenn by the end of it. :p  
**MagicalElf73: **I love that you read the responses to other people's reviews! I was wondering if anyone else would pick up on the Geneva Convention reference! And you did!  
Now you were slightly wrong about the second dorm building. It wasn't completely overrun. But it was disastrous. Serves them right for not being worried, right? I hope you enjoyed it!  
**piratejessieswaby: **Hello again! Thank you for your review! I'm so glad that you love Emerson. OFC's are tricky sometimes. Too easy to turn them into Mary Sue's so I'm glad that everyone seems to love her. Matt is a bit of a brat, but don't worry, he's going to feel bad about that.  
**DBugMom: **Oh my goodness! I love the patience. You guys have no idea how much it means to me! Thank you! You're more than welcome for the mush. And I hope that I did leave you guys on the edge of your seats!  
**DancingUnderMoonlight18: **I'm so happy that you guys enjoyed that last chapter so much! I was worried that such a quiet chapter was going to be boring, but no one seemed to mind which is really good. I hope that you liked this chapter too! It's setting up for some very big things (as if this chapter wasn't big enough). :D  
And that's all I've got for now!  
I've got to work on Saturday, but hopefully I'll be able to get out an update at some point.  
If not, look for one early on Sunday morning!  
Thank you for all of your patience, until next time happy reading!  
Hugs and kisses,  
Chloe Jane.


	32. Chapter Thirty-One

Disclaimer: I do not own the Walking Dead, although I'm completely obsessed with it and wished I did. Emerson, however, I do own. Although I actually look for Emerson in the episodes now ... AMC call me, you know you want my character. Emeryl would be amazing on screen (even better if I got to play her.)

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I'm so sorry for the long wait.  
Real life kind of kidnapped me and ran away with me.  
But I'm back. And hopefully I didn't lose you guys while I was gone.

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Special thanks to my new beta reader Alexa for editing this chapter!  
She did it so quickly and promised me that you guys are in for a treat with this one!

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And happy news! This story is now part of a community devoted to Daryl and OCs.  
That made my day!  
How many of you found this story because of the community?  
And how did I get into it?  
Please answer my questions!  
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Enjoy!

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Chapter Thirty-One:

"You can't really think that they're just going to let you keep me here," Emerson growled as she struggled against the ropes that currently tied her hands behind her back. "They will come back for me and you're going to regret it when they do."

"I wouldn't count on it, Little Mermaid," the man growled back. "Your group doesn't strike me as the compassionate type." Emerson scoffed at the word _compassionate_. Because this man and his group didn't strike her as the compassionate type - they had kidnapped her, threatened her, and tied her to a chair. "And if I were you I'd stop talking before you made me rethink gagging you."

"If I were you I would rethink holding me hostage," Emerson countered. "They're not going to play nice when they come back. If I were you I'd kill me and sneak out of this building before they got back. Because Daryl will kill you when he gets his hands on you."

"Well lucky for you that we're not killers like your group," a girl said as she walked into the room. "I wouldn't complain too much about that."

"Yeah," Emerson said with a nod, "you're not killers." She looked around the room, there were five people in the group. Two college aged girls, two college aged boys, and the older man who had taken her. "There's what? Like, one gun, between the five of you? And from the fact that you didn't shoot my friend or me I'm going to bet that you're running low on ammunition. How have you even managed to stay alive for this long?" No one answered her, Emerson nodded, it wasn't like she hadn't expected this. She turned to the man that had kidnapped her. "You look a little old to be a college student? What are you doing here?" The man didn't answer, his arms tensed though, drawing attention to a tattoo on his left arm. "USMC?" she asked him. "You were a Marine?"

"I am a Marine," the man growled. "You don't just stop being a Marine. Not until you die at least. And I'll be damned if I die because of one of those biters." Emerson nodded and mentioned that she hadn't been aware that it was Marine policy to kidnap and hold American citizens hostage. "You do what you have to do to protect your team," the man hissed. "You were a threat. You needed to be neutralized."

"Neutralized?" Emerson asked, her eyebrows rose. "I was in the Army. And forgive me, but when we said neutralized we meant that we killed them, not that we tied them to a chair and glared at them," she added the last part for the benefit of one of the college boys who was sitting on the table, glaring at her as if he could scare her with his eyes. She shrugged as best she could with her arms tied behind the chair, "I guess the word means different things to different branches. Though, I always thought the Marines were tougher than this; stupid, but tougher."

"I think you're the stupid one," one of the girls hissed. "We've got you tied up. We could easily feed you to biters. And you're making fun of us? Calling us stupid? That doesn't seem very smart."

Emerson grinned. "What biters?" she asked, looking around the room, her eyes wide as if she was scared that there were Walkers hidden in one of the bedrooms. She turned back to look at the girl, a little blonde, her grin settled back on her lips, "You guys have had shutters on your windows for too long. We cleared the car lot of biters. We cleared the quad. We cleared the other dorm building, we boarded up all the other buildings so they couldn't get out, and we cleared your dorm building for you, and will be working on the other buildings soon. There aren't any biters around. You might as well shoot me, though you might want to save your bullets for when my group comes to get me instead of wasting one on me."

"Wait," the man growled, "your group cleared the school?" Emerson shrugged and told him that they hadn't cleared the entire school yet, but that they were working on it. "But how?" he asked, "there were a lot of them when I got to the school, but there were still students then. Now it's just us. How many are there in your group? How did you do it?"

Emerson considered lying, she considered telling him that there were like fifty people in her group to scare them. But then she realized something; it would be scarier if she told them the truth. That her group was so tough, and skilled, that the small number of them managed to clear the school. "There's thirteen of us," she said, smiling at the looks of confusion and fear on the faces surrounding her. "Of course, not all of us cleared the school. We've got an old man, Lori can't do much at the moment, Beth isn't really one to kill biters - she's too gentle, then of course there's the two kids and the dog that don't do much in the biter department," she shrugged.

"Wait," the man growled. "You mean to tell me that basically seven of you cleared the school? That can't be true."

"Four men cleared our dorm building and boarded up the other buildings around the quad," Emerson said, enjoying as more fear filtered across the faces of those standing around her. "Three men and me came to clear this building. Though you got me so it was three men that cleared the lower two floors." She shrugged again and glanced up at her captors with wide, innocent eyes, "I told you that you were going to regret taking me," she said. "You might think that we lack compassion, but we're a family. And they will come back for me."

"Fuck," the Marine growled as he stood up. "Come with me," he growled to his group before he quickly left the living room for one of the bedrooms. Emerson grinned after them; she had them scared, which was a good thing. She just hoped that what she had said was true, that Daryl and the others would come back for her.

-.-.-.-.-

By the time the Marine and his group had made it back to the living room Emerson had wriggled free from the ropes that held her to the chair and was sitting calmly in the chair, her hands were folded in her lap. She had considered trying to leave, but she wasn't strong enough to move the furniture that was barricading the door to the hallway and the group had her knives so she wouldn't be able to defend herself if they came back out and found her. She smiled when she heard one of the college boys sputter in surprise when he realized that she had freed her hands from the ropes. She lifted one of her hands and waved at the group, "I was in Iraq and Afghanistan," she said softly, "you pick up on a few tricks over there." The group looked nervous, she sighed, "I won't hurt you," she said softly, "you have my weapons. I'll even let you tie me up again if that will make you feel better."

The Marine walked forward and began to tie her hands to the chair again, this time tighter. "If you were going to let us tie you back up why did you untie yourself in the first place?" One of the girls asked angrily.

"To let you know that I could," Emerson said with a shrug. "Now let's start over. My name is Emerson. I'm from Glenwood, which is how I knew about this school. I met up with my group about a month ago and brought them here because I figured that it was a small enough school with a wall around it that it would be fairly easy to secure and clear it. I was right." She turned to look at the college aged kids, she nodded at one of the girls that was wearing a faded and torn Berry College shirt, "I figure you guys were students here," she said. They nodded and she turned to the Marine, "What I want to know is why you're here," she said.

"The name's Ben," the Marine said. He decided that it might be better for his group to be civil. "Lindsey, here," he said, gesturing to the small blonde, "is my sister. I came here on the off chance that she would still be alive."

Emerson nodded, her eyes softening a bit as she glanced between the siblings, "I have a younger sibling too," she said softly. "A brother. He's back at the other dorm building. He's eight years old and I'm all the family he's got left." She watched as Ben's eyes softened a bit at the news. "Did you have anyone else in your group, Ben?" she asked him. "Or did you come here all alone?"

"There were more," Ben said with a nod. "I had my entire fire team at the beginning," he added. "We were out of the logistics base in Albany, Georgia. When the base got overrun we left to go get our families. We were camped, just outside of your town actually when we were attacked?"

"By Walkers?" Emerson asked, "I mean biters to you, I guess?"

"No," the man said, shaking his head, "by men. A group of them, I was taking a piss in the trees on the side of the road when it happened. A group of them came up in cars, they offered my team help, but when my men lowered their weapons the strangers began to shoot. They killed all of them and collected their weapons and supplies. They started to search the trees, but I ran, they didn't find me."

"They just shot your men?" Emerson asked. Ben nodded. "Were they soldiers themselves?" Emerson asked, her voice getting quieter.

"No," Ben said, shaking his head. "I mean a few of them might have been, but I find it hard to believe that any American soldier would find it that easy to fire on their own kind. Paramilitary types. They were organized and they had weapons, but they weren't US military. Honestly, quite a few of them were just rednecks with military grade weapons."

"Did you hear any names?" Emerson pressed, leaning forward in her intensity.

"Sure," Ben said with a nod. "They didn't avoid calling each other by their names. I mean they planned on killing everyone in the group so it wasn't like there was a need for them to keep quiet. There was a guy named Jones, they kept calling him Jones, and another one- Darren. And there was a Liam, one was called Martinez. And there was a guy that was missing his hand; he had some kind of canister looking thing over the stump that had a blade sticking out of it. He had a weird name, started with an M - it didn't seem like a real name to me."

"Merle?" Emerson supplied, her voice even quieter.

"Yeah," Ben said with a nod. "Tough son of a bitch. Do you know him?"

Emerson nodded. She did know Merle. "I was the one that fixed up his hand. You're right; he is a tough son of a bitch. He sawed off his own hand to escape Walkers, I don't know, he never explained the whole story to me and cauterized the wound himself. All the same, he was half dead when my group found him, but instead of killing him our leader, Darren respected him for having made it so far on his own and injured. He had me fix Merle up and attach the device to his arm so that he could still have a blade. It was good work, I'd have been proud of it if he hadn't used it for some pretty bad shit."

"Wait," Ben growled, standing up and backing away from Emerson's chair, "Your group? You mean they're here? At the school?"

"No," Emerson said quickly, shaking her head. "I left them. I was never really part of that group anyway, they basically forced me to be part of their group, they threatened my brother. I had to stay with them to keep him safe. I never killed anyone. I just fixed them up after they attacked a group. But it was too much and my brother and I ran away from them. I met up with this group later; they're not like that. They don't just kill you. Though they will be angry with you for kidnapping me. But I'm not part of that group anymore."

"Why was it too much for you?" one of the college students asked. "You helped clear the school, blood obviously isn't an issue for you."

"They weren't particularly good to me," Emerson explained, trying not to have to explain that she was basically raped by the group. "I was the only woman at the camp, the only reason they didn't kill me was that I was a medic and I had skills they needed. But they weren't nice to me. And there's a difference between killing zombies that are attacking you and trying to eat you and killing people just because they have supplies that you want. It wasn't right. And I hated it."

"How do we know we can trust you?" Ben asked, his tone harsh.

"I think I should be asking you that question," Emerson pointed out before she sighed. "But you have my weapons. I let you tie me up."

"After you showed us that you could untie yourself," one of the boys pointed out.

"Go around the back of the chair," Emerson said. "I haven't tried to untie myself again. The ropes are still tight. I'm not going to hurt you. I just wish I could get the same guarantee from you."

Ben sighed, "We're not going to hurt -" he started, his statement cut off by a loud bang from the other end of the suite. "What the hell was that?" he yelled, turning to look at his group.

"That's my group," Emerson said. "I told you they'd come get me." Ben growled when another loud bang sounded throughout the suite. He turned to his group and ordered that they follow him. Emerson screamed after them as they rounded the corner toward the bedrooms, "Please don't hurt them!" It was only after she had finished her statement that she realized that she wasn't sure if she was asking Ben and his group not to hurt her people or if she was asking her people not to hurt Ben and the college students.

Rick's group had quickly realized that they weren't going to get through the door into the suite. They had chosen instead to go into the suite next door and use one of the desks to ram a hole in the wall, and to break into the dorm that way. Ben would later have to admit that it was a good plan of attack that he had never thought of. If he had been hoping that only the Asian would come back to get the girl he was proven wrong. When he and his group rounded the corner the five of them were met with six people. Ben's one handgun was no match for their five guns and one crossbow. He thought about trying to fight them, but as he glanced at his sister and her friends he realized that there was no way they would win the fight. He quickly put the gun on the floor and held his hands up in the air in surrender, "We didn't hurt her!" he said.

"Bull shit," the man holding the crossbow growled at him. "Glenn heard you hit her and call her a bitch."

"She bit him!" one of the girls squealed. "Your redhead bit him!"

Daryl grinned as he pushed through the group, "That's my girl," he praised as he headed toward the living room to make sure that the man had been telling the truth when he said that they didn't hurt her. His grin got wider when he heard Glenn step forward and punch the man in the face. Daryl had been ready for a fight; he had been expecting a fight. But Rick's plan had worked. Rick had assumed that there weren't many in the group and that they didn't have many weapons or ammunition, if they had had lots of ammunition Rick was sure that they would have shot Glenn and Emerson instead of taking Emerson hostage and sending Glenn back to the group. Rick had a feeling that if the group got into the suite and the people that took Emerson saw how many of them there were they would be scared and wouldn't want to fight. Daryl was almost upset that he didn't get to fight them though. They had taken a member of his group hostage after all.

All thoughts of a fight momentarily left Daryl's mind when he rounded the corner and caught sight of Emerson struggling against the ropes that held her tied to a chair. "Em," Daryl whispered, shaking his head as he rushed forward so that he could check her out and make sure that she was okay. "What did they do to you?" he growled as he knelt in front of her and held her chin in his hands so that he could inspect her face. Her lower lip was split and bleeding and a bruise was already beginning to form under her right eye. Glenn hadn't been mistaken when he said that the guy who had taken Emerson had hit her.

"I'm fine," Emerson said, she sighed when Daryl sent her a look that said that he didn't believe her. "Really," she added. She leaned forward so that she could kiss Daryl. "Do you mind untying me though?" she asked him once they had pulled away from each other.

Daryl nodded and quickly moved to the back of the chair so that he could cut the ropes that were holding Emerson in her seat. Emerson remained sitting for a minute or so after he had cut her free she asked him about Matt as she attempted to rub feeling back into her lower arms and hands. "He's fine," Daryl told her as he moved the low living room table closer to her chair so that he could sit down in front of her. "I didn't tell him what happened," he admitted. "I was going to, I thought that he should know, but then I thought about the fight that you guys had last night, and he was telling me that he felt so bad about it. I couldn't tell him that something had gone wrong. I told him that you were sorting supplies in here and that he should clean our rooms as a surprise for you when you came back. The cleaning was mostly to keep him in the dorm room so that he wouldn't hear any of the adults talk about you being kidnapped."

Emerson grinned at the brunette man in front of her and she couldn't stop herself from lunging forward and kissing him on the lips again. "How did you think of that?" she asked him.

Daryl shrugged, "I was sitting in his room with the kid. And I was looking at him - he looked so happy. I didn't want to ruin that. So I just tried to think about what you would do. What would Emerson say? You know? Did I do the right thing?" he asked her, suddenly worried that she would have wanted him to tell Matt what had happened to her.

"You did just fine," Emerson said with a proud nod. "Perfect actually." She was about to lean forward to kiss him again when Glenn walked into the living room and interrupted them.

"I'm sorry," the Asian apologized, even as he walked further into the room so that he could grab Emerson, pull her out of the chair, and wrap his arms around her. "I'm so glad that you're okay," he whispered into her ear before he let go of her so that he could look at both her and Daryl. "It's just that Rick's ready to go back to our building and we've got to figure out what to do with these guys," he said, gesturing over his shoulder toward where Ben's group was standing in the hallway.

"You can't hurt them," Emerson said quickly, looking between Glenn and Daryl. "We can't hurt them."

"Em," Daryl said softly, thinking about when she had invited Jackson and his group to the school without asking the rest of the group for permission.

"I'm not saying we have to take them back to our dorm building," Emerson pleaded as she led the two men down the hallway toward the larger group. She hoped that Rick would hear her and see reason. "But we can't hurt them. They're just kids for fuck's sake. Well besides Ben."

"Ben?" Daryl growled as he wrapped his arm around Emerson's slim waist and shot a warning glare at the man in question. "You're on a first name basis with the bastard that kidnapped you, held you at gun point, hit you, and tied you to a chair?"

"In his defense it was the kid in the blue shirt that first tied me to the chair," Emerson said as she pointed at one of the college aged kids before she became serious again. "But come on, Rick. They were here first. They only kidnapped me because they felt threatened. We shut them in this building with the Walkers and then they heard Glenn and I going through the rooms. They must have thought that we were going to kill them. Besides, after everything Ben's been through I can't really blame him for feeling threatened." Daryl raised his eyebrows; he seemed unimpressed with her argument. Emerson sighed, she didn't really want to have this conversation yet, but she knew that it might convince Daryl. "He ran into Darren's group," she explained. "They didn't see him, killed the rest of his men though."

"Who's Darren?" Maggie asked.

"Did you say they killed everyone?" Carol added.

"What's going on?" Rick asked. "This is the first time I've heard of this."

Daryl sighed, "Just because he saw Darren doesn't mean that you guys share some sort of bond, Em," he said. "He only saw what Darren is capable of. You've lived with it. I don't see your point."

Emerson sighed, she really didn't want to have to say this, but she knew that if she did Ben and his group would be safe. She would have Daryl- hook, line, and sinker. "Daryl," she said softly, though she knew that the entire group could hear her. "They might be able to help us find your brother."

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Author's Note:  
Dun dun dun duuuuuunnnnn!  
So what did you guys think? Love it? Hate it? Let me know!  
(Though I really hope you didn't hate it. That would make me sad).  
Special thanks goes to: _dbtk, WinterIsComing1015, X23 Maximoff, XxBamxX, Cassiewenning, JenksGirl, Littleblonde12, hfward1221, kittensixx1, waitingangelofdeath, Oblivion's Tragedy, DeviantDames, Antar Grrl, Sehlyn, Heart of Bruce, Cthylla, scarletcantley, sdxdoll, zb1993, dooby'o, Paopu-Destinies, MrsGooglyBear, janeth cullen, liz31394, casper6six6, chaebin, jomaxrox, moonquirk, Rainy Day baby, chocolatxdoll, Falling Right Side-Up, greenstarlight0, lilmaher, whoamelinda, slash95, Katara Melody Cullen, LadyPhoenixKnight, maddielala56, AuroraBluma, Music is my Love and Life, _and _mira97 _for adding this story to their Favorites List!  
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But as always the **BIGGEST** of **SPECIAL THANKS** goes to those of you that **REVIEWED** so here we go:  
**Piratejessieswaby:** She should. Hopefully she will from now on! Thanks for reviewing.  
**SweetCaroline87:** Hahaha. I don't know how I'm so fantastic. :D But I'm glad you think I am!I'm glad that you liked the last chapter and hopefully you're still around now to read this new chapter!  
**JetNova**: Thank you so much for your review! I'm glad you like the story so far and I hope you like this chapter as well.  
**isopt:** Hello dear! I'm sorry that I made you wait so long for the new update! But I hope you're still around to read! I hope that you enjoyed this chapter!  
**mischieflover:** Hello dear! Can I just say that I missed you during my writer's block forced hiatus! I'm so glad that you like my mushy scenes even though you know my formula. Mush = drama! I hope that you liked this chapter as well. I kind of left you on a bit of a cliff-hanger. :D Cause I'm mean like that on Valentine's Day.  
**mrskaz453:** She doesn't learn. But she will. And I'm glad that you still love her even though she can be stupid. I hope that you're still around after I made you wait so long on the last cliffhanger. But I'm back now and should be updating on a fairly regular basis (once or twice a week - real life is kicking my butt too much to do daily updates) but I gave you a Valentine's day treat of another cliff-hanger. Even though I love you. :D  
**ResidentGoth:** The couplely bandwagon's a fun place to be! We have feels, and cuddles, and inside jokes. You should definitely climb on up! I missed you dear! Seriously, I feel like we're friends and it's been too long! Aren't you happy that we're back together? (And that Walking Dead's back?) Oh my god! Lori's still being a bitch from beyond the grave! It's crazy! And so is Rick!  
Anyway, I'm glad you liked the last chapter and I hope that you liked this one too!  
**HChrisH:** I had to throw the Little Mermaid in there... it would have been too tense otherwise. Besides, I've been waiting for someone to caller her that for the whole story. She has red hair for a reason. :D I'm glad that you liked the last chapter though you're obviously angry at Emerson :p and I hope that you liked this chapter as well!  
**Kay1104:** Hello dear, hopefully you're still around. I'm glad that Daryl and Matt did that to you! Those boys need some bonding time. I hope you liked this chapter as well!  
**DBugMom:** I've missed you too! I feel like all of my regular reviewers and I are friends and I've missed you guys so much! I'm so happy that you liked the last chapter and I hope that you liked this one (as well as the cliff-hanger at the end.) Happy Valentine's Day!  
**Gaby de Brabant**: I have missed you so much, love! I'm glad that you think that I write action really well, because there's going to be lots up it in some upcoming chapters. I'm hope you're not mad at me for making you wait so long for this chapter and that I left you guys with another cliff-hanger. But don't worry, I'm officially back now so you won't be waiting too long! I love you! Happy Valentine's Day.  
**Huzzah-94:** Don't worry, Emerson's okay. I can't kill her off yet (or maybe ever...) I agree with the Matt thing! I love watching videos of Norman interacting with the kid that plays Carl and I wanted some of that in my story. So it's going to happen **BONDING!  
DancingUnderMoonlight18:** I'm sorry that I made you wait so long for this chapter! I feel like I've let you down and that makes me really sad! I've missed you! I'm glad that you loved the chapter even though I surprised you with the fact that Em got kidnapped. Don't worry she'll be back soon I promise. And yeah, I was really happy with the Glenn/Em conversation and Daryl/Matt bonding. After I had decided that Emerson was going to get kidnapped I realized I needed some cuteness in the chapter. And I really think it worked! Happy Valentine's Day by the way!  
**FanFicGirl10:** Don't worry, nothing too bad is going to happen to Emerson (obviously, Rick's group has already saved her) I couldn't leave her there for too long. I'm glad that you liked the last chapter and I hope that you liked this one too!  
**fireflyandowl:** I remember you now! I'm so happy that you liked the last chapter!  
**WinterIsComing1015: **I love when people review as they read. It makes me really happy! Thank you so much for stopping by and reading my story and I'm really happy that you're enjoying this story! I hope that this chapter didn't disappoint you! I'd love to hear from you again! (p.s. the scene where Daryl holds her in the bed while she's crying ... my favorite interaction between them hands down.) And hey! Don't worry about yours! If I didn't have a fear of accidentally stealing someone's ideas and refuse to read stories that have the same love interest as mine I would read it and I'm sure it's amazing! Actually I might read it!  
**X23 Maximoff:** I'm so glad that you were enjoying this story (though I hope that you did get your studying in as well!) I'm sorry that I left you with a cliff-hanger for so long, but I hope that you're still around now to keep reading! (even though I left you with another one today, but it won't be so long before I update again. I promise.)  
You love the story and I write Daryl in character? You sure know how to flatter a girl! I love it! And I'm so glad Em isn't a Mary-sue. Biggest worry ever when you create an OC. I honestly love when readers say they get mad at her because then I know I'm doing something right because she's not perfect! And I'm glad you think they compliment each other (I'm seriously fangirling over your review right now... flailing.) Thank you so much for your review and I hope that you liked this chapter as well!  
**Readergirl66:** Thank you so much for your reviews! I'm glad you liked the last few chapters and though I made you wait for a while I hope that you liked this chapter as well! And as far as Ben's group ... mum's the word on what I plan to do with them. :D It's going to be fun though!  
**biancastefani:** I know! I've heard that chapter thirty was some kind of milestone! And I'm so glad that it's not dragging because I'm nowhere near done with this story yet! I'm sorry I made you wait so long for this chapter (You're not the only one who sometimes disappears.) But I'm back now and I hope that you didn't have to drop anything too important to read this chapter. :p As always I hope you enjoyed it and I'll see you back here soon!  
**Embers in the flames:** I'm glad my story makes your day better and I hope that it made today awesome for you! Though I did make you wait for a while. :/ I'm sorry, writer's block can be a bit of a bitch sometimes. But I'm back now and I hope that you're still around, love!  
**Malachite16819:** Don't worry dear! I didn't abandon it, just got a writer's block for a while. But I'm back now and hopefully just as good as before. Did you enjoy this chapter? Fingers crossed that you did!  
**SilverAdvenger12:** I'm glad you loved the last chapter and I hope that you loved this one too. :D  
**MagicalElf73:** I legitimately laughed out loud at your review! I have missed you and I hope I didn't make you abandon this story with my writer's block - hiatus. I hope that you liked this chapter as well!  
**Rosie-Everdeen-Potter:** I'm back!  
**MuffinnLovve:** I'm sorry, don't worry, it wasn't your computer it was me and my writer's block. I won't be updating every day like I used to (real life is kind of kicking my butt right now) but at least once or twice a week now. I hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as you liked the older ones! Let me know!  
**Mikki18:** Well hello! :D  
**TheNightmaresBeforeADream: ** I know it's been too long, but I'm back now and hopefully you are too!  
**Casper6six6:** New reviewer! Hello! Welcome! I'm glad that you like the story so far and I'm sorry I made you wait so long for this update! And do you know happy it makes me to hear that this is one of your favorite Daryl stories? I'm thrilled! Tickled pink even! I hope you liked it! Let me know!  
**Music is my Love and Life:** I absolutely love you for loving this story! I hope that you enjoyed this chapter too even though there was very little Emeryl. (And they're my favorite ship too! I legitimately get mad when Emerson isn't in any of the episodes.)  
Phew that took a while! But I loved it!  
Once again I hope that you guys enjoyed this chapter and I'll be back by the end of the weekend with a new update (hopefully!)  
Happy Valentine's Day! I'm not even ashamed to admit that I love each and every one of you!  
Hugs and kisses,  
Chloe Jane.


	33. Chapter Thirty-Two

Disclaimer: I do not own the Walking Dead, although I'm completely obsessed with it and wished I did. Emerson, however, I do own.

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Special thanks to my beta reader: You' .  
for being the wonderful person she is.

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And oh my GOD!  
Last night's episode!  
HOLY SHIT! I can't even! I can't even handle it.  
No. Can't do it!

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Enjoy!

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Chapter Thirty-two:

It was silent for a moment as Emerson's words sank in. Emerson was sure that the looks on everyone else's faces would have been interesting, but she could not pull her gaze away from Daryl. She watched him as the emotions played across his face in quick succession. First anger, what she said hadn't quite sunk in yet. Then confusion, he was unsure of how Emerson would know that Ben's group could help them find his brother. Then hope, he had almost convinced himself that he would never see Merle again, but now Emerson was saying that they might be able to find him. Then confusion again. "M-my brother?" Daryl stammered, glancing between Rick, Ben and Emerson, and back to Rick. His gaze finally came to a stop on Emerson.

"Merle," Emerson said with a nod, she hoped that saying Merle's name would help Daryl come to terms with the idea. She quickly shushed Ben when the Marine began to rant about the fact that Daryl was related to Merle. "Shut up, Ben," she said, her tone was firm even though she refused to look away from Daryl. "He saw Merle, Daryl," she said softly. "No more than a few months ago. He saw him near Glenwood. He might be able to help us find your brother. We can't send him away. We can't send the others away either, they're just kids."

"He saw Merle?" Daryl asked, finally turning away from Emerson to look at Ben. "You saw my brother?" he growled at the Marine. Ben nodded and quickly explained that Merle had been part of the group that had attacked his fire team when they were camped outside of Glenwood. Daryl's head quickly snapped back to Emerson, "Merle helped Darren's group attack Ben's team?" he asked. Emerson nodded, she was sure that Daryl had figured it out. "He must have joined up with them after you and Matt left?" Daryl pressed. Emerson sighed; Daryl hadn't gotten it.

One of the college boys scoffed though, he got it. "After she left?" he asked. "Dude she was there when he joined the group. Before you guys got here she had admitted that she was the one who fixed up his hand."

"What?" Rick asked, glancing sharply at Emerson.

The redhead nodded. "I was new to the group when Darren brought him in. He was almost dead. Darren respected him for having survived for so long - he was injured and on his own, you know? Darren figured that he must really be tough, so he had me fix Merle up and take care of his hand." She glanced around the group, worried about how they would take the news. She hadn't told them much about her life before she joined them and they hadn't talked much about Merle. But from what she had gathered no one besides Daryl trusted him. She was sure that once they found out that people like Merle had been in her old group they would kick her out.

"So Darren was the Rick of your old group?" Glenn asked, his face and voice filled with curiosity. "He was the one that made the decisions for everyone else?" Emerson nodded quietly, she hoped that Glenn would let the subject go with that, but he didn't. "Why'd you leave?" he asked her.

Emerson shifted uncomfortably, she did not particularly want to answer that question, especially not in front of complete strangers. Maggie seemed to sense Emerson's discomfort because she stepped forward and spoke up, "Maybe we should figure out what to do with these five before we ask Emerson about her whole life story, yeah?" she asked. Emerson nodded her silent gratitude at her friend and the brunette woman grinned at her.

Rick nodded; he stared at Ben and the college students for a moment, making a quick decision. "Give Emerson her knives back," he ordered. Ben nodded and quickly handed Emerson her belt and all seven of her throwing knives. Rick nodded again once that was done. "Give me your weapons," he said, his tone firm - leaving nothing up to argument. Ben ground his teeth together, in frustration, as he handed over his handgun. Rick raised his eyebrows at the single weapon, "How did you guys survive with just this?" he asked before he told Carol and T-Dog to search for more weapons around the suite.

"But how will we protect ourselves?" one of the college girls asked, her voice angry. "We were here first! You can't just leave us without weapons. We need to be able to defend ourselves. You can't do this!"

"Defend yourselves against what?" Rick asked. "We won't attack you. We've cleared most of the school and all of building. Keep it boarded up, don't go outside at night. We have a look out on our roof all day and all night. We'll take care of any stray Walkers. If you stay away from us we'll stay away from you. We'll go through the bottom floors of this building and take all possible weapons from both floors and the useable supplies from the first floor. The second floor will be all yours. When we go hunting, if we get enough game we'll give you a cut." Emerson smiled at that, she knew that the last provision was for her, Rick had noticed how concerned she was about the college students so he had decided that they would even help feed the kids if they could. Rick glanced around at his group, silently asking them if they thought that it was a good deal. They all nodded, though Daryl seemed to only grudgingly agree. He turned back to Ben, "It's a fair deal," he said. "You should take it."

"And if we don't?" Ben asked; his tone was not entirely hostile, but it was not friendly either.

Rick shrugged; he looked mildly unconcerned about what happened to Ben and his group. "Then we'll give you some supplies, your gun, and one of our cars and you'll leave the school. Those are your only two choices."

"That's a death sentence!" Ben pointed out angrily.

"Then take the deal," Rick said. Ben glared at the older man for a silent minute before he sighed and nodded, holding his hand out to shake on the deal as Carol and T-Dog rejoined the group with several knives and a baseball bat. "Good," Rick said with a nod, honestly he had been hoping that Ben and his group would take the deal. He announced the plan to the group so that Carol and T-Dog could hear what was going on and then he clapped his hands together once, driving them into action.

Emerson managed to avoid Glenn over the next two hours as the group searched the three floors of the dorm building for possible weapons. She and Maggie were assigned to weapons on the third and second floors. Rick, Carol, and Glenn were searching for useful supplies on the first floor. And Daryl and T-Dog had grabbed Ben and the two college boys to help them move the Walker bodies out of the building and burn them on the corner of the quad. Emerson had to admit that she was proud of her group, they could have just left the bodies for Ben's group to deal with, but they were trying to help instead. It was very nice of them.

On the way back to their dorm Emerson approached Rick. "Hey Rick," she said softly, she looked at her feet instead of the older man. "I wanted to apologize." The older man turned to look at her and when Emerson dared to glance up at him her heart warmed at the fact that he looked confused. He didn't seem to think that she had anything to apologize for. That wouldn't stop her, but it was nice to know that at least one of the men in the group wasn't angry with her. She nodded slowly, "I don't know what Glenn told you, but this wasn't his fault. I was the one that suggested that we split up. He didn't want to, but I teased him about being a wimp and made him agree to split up. This is my fault. They might not have kidnapped me if I hadn't been so stupid." She paused for a moment, looking back down at her shoe before she sighed and shook her head, "I'm sorry," she whispered. "I seem to cause more trouble than I'm worth." She sighed again and glanced toward the rest of the group before glancing at her feet again, "I guess what I'm trying to say is that I would understand if you wanted to kick me out of the group." She wouldn't like it, but she would understand it. And as much as she had come to enjoy living with Rick's group and being able to trust other people, she and Matt had survived on their own before. They would be able to do it again. She had no doubt about that.

Rick stopped walking and turned his body so that he was fully facing the small redhead that was walking beside him. She hadn't realized that he had stopped walking yet; he reached out and grabbed her arm, stalling her. "We're not that fickle," he told her, lowering her head so that he could force eye contact on the young woman. "We're not just a group Emerson, we're a family. And you and your brother and even the damn dog are a part of it now. We're not going to let you go just because you make a few mistakes. Everyone makes mistakes and to be honest, I'm sure that your heart is in the right place. You're not stupid, you just do stupid things sometimes because you go with your gut and you don't stop to think. Our old world could have used more people like you." Emerson opened her mouth to argue with him, to point out that maybe their old world could have used more people like her, but this new world didn't need any more. But Rick held his hand up, silently interrupting her before she even started. "And as for forcing Glenn to split up. No one blames you for that. Hell Daryl and I even split up on the first floor. What happened to you could have happened to anybody. We're all just glad that you're okay."

Emerson smiled softly at him, daring to believe that he was right. That she wasn't completely stupid. Her green eyes darted away from him and landed on the tense set of Daryl's back as he stormed back to the school in front of the rest of the group. "I'm not sure everyone is completely glad that I'm okay," she whispered softly, her voice cracking. Daryl hadn't said a word to her since he had realized that she had known his brother and never said anything about it. And it hurt her. Everything had been so good that morning, she had honestly thought that she and Daryl had made a break through - that after their conversation in their bedroom everything was going to be better. But now he could barley look at her and he refused to talk to her. She understood, but it hurt.

"Give him a bit of time," Rick advised softly. "Daryl can think on his feet fairly well. But he's not good when he feels like he's been betrayed." He stopped when he caught the pained look on Emerson's face. "Oh no, Honey," he said shaking his head. "You didn't betray him. No one thinks that, probably not even him. He just doesn't quite understand, none of us do. You have to explain some things to us and give us a chance to figure it out, okay? You'll see, it'll all work out." Emerson nodded, not quite sure if she believed him or not, but she knew that she had no other choice. Rick nodded and put a gentle hand on the small of her back, giving her a gentle push to get her moving again. "We'll give everyone a chance to calm down a bit," he said with another nod. "And then we'll have a group meeting where you'll explain things. I think you're overdue on explaining how you got to us," he said, a soft smile on his face so that Emerson knew that she wasn't in trouble. "We've all been so busy and excited about the school that we never stopped to ask how you came to us. We're curious."

Emerson nodded and forced a small smile onto her face, "I want to go see Matt and make sure that he knows that everything is okay and then I promise that I'll tell you everything." Rick nodded and gave her another gentle push to get her moving a little faster toward the school. She let out a gentle laugh and shook her head as she moved in front of him. She spun around, walking backwards so that she could face the older man. "Hey Rick," she said softly. "This group's lucky to have you, you know that?"

"Same to you," was his quiet response. "Sometimes it seems that you're the only person who thinks to remind us what being human and alive really means." When Emerson turned back around toward the school she couldn't help but grin, coming from Rick that was some of the best praise she had ever gotten.

-.-.-.-.-

Emerson had spent some time alone with Matt before she had sent him to hang out with Carl and Lou in Rick's suite. Then she had walked to the floor common room so that she could talk to the rest of the group. She was surprised when she found Daryl in the room, he still wasn't talking to her, but at least he didn't glare at her when she walked in. That was good news as far as she was concerned. Word had spread that she was ready to talk and within ten minutes everyone was in the common room besides Beth who was keeping watch on the roof. They were nice; they quietly settled down around her and patiently waited until she was ready to start talking. None of them were hostile and though she knew that they were all very curious about her past (word had spread to everyone that she had known Merle by now) none of them asked her any questions or pushed her to talk. She sighed after about ten minutes of silence; she finally had decided how she would start. "I was part of a group before Daryl found me in the woods," she said softly, starting with news that everyone already knew. "But they weren't good like you guys. They weren't good at all." Over the next half hour she explained to them how Darren's group functioned and what they did to outsiders as well as what they did to her. She didn't spare a single detail, she wanted them to understand why she had left and didn't like talking to them. She could hear the effect of her story on the others, there were gasps, Glenn cursed a lot, she was sure that she heard Carol sniff back tears, but she didn't look at any of them, she couldn't take her eyes off Daryl. She knew that he had heard this story before, he knew what they had done, but up until today he hadn't known that his brother was a part of the group. It had to be harder for him to hear now than it had been before.

"There was this guy," she continued after she had explained her reasons for leaving the group when she did. "He joined the group shortly after I was forced to join it. Found us actually. Darren would have killed him, but something caught his attention. The man was missing his hand. Said he had cut it off himself to escape Walkers. He had done a really bad job at cauterizing it and he was almost dead when he found the group. He didn't kill the man like everyone thought he would. He was impressed that the guy had made it so far injured and on his own - he was obviously tough and instead he had me fix his hand as best as I could and find a way to attach a blade to the stump so that he would be able to defend himself. I think originally Darren had been planning to send him on his way after he was fixed up, but the man fit in really well with the group. The type of men and how they handled outsiders, Walkers, and even," she paused, glancing at Daryl with a worried expression on her face, "women," she sighed out finally. "Well, the guy fit in really well. He worked with the group and Darren let him stay." She smiled a grim smile when Lori asked her the name of the man, "Merle," she said softly. "Though I never learned his last name."

She moved toward where Daryl was sitting and knelt beside the armrest of the couch, reaching out so that she could grab the man's hand. "I didn't know," she whispered softly. "Until today I hadn't made the connection that he was your brother. I never learned his last name and it wasn't until that morning at my house that you mentioned that your brother's name was Merle. I wanted to think it was a coincidence," she whispered, pleading with him not to be angry at her. "You and him are so different. I didn't want to think that you could be related. It didn't make sense to me."

"Was he still with them when you left the group?" Rick asked, drawing Emerson's attention away from Daryl as the latter shook his hand free from her grasp and pulled away from her. She tried to hide the hurt on her face as she turned to Rick and nodded.

"That was months and months ago," she said softly. "But he was still there. I left them close to Atlanta. But a few months ago, Ben - the marine in the other group, saw him just outside of Glenwood. There's some new people in the group," she added, "I didn't recognize some of the names of the people he saw. But Merle was there and some others I know. Granted that was months ago, but if they're still working the way they did when I was part of the group they might be somewhere in the area. It's been pretty quiet around here and once they set up camp they don't like moving unless the area becomes overrun with Walkers. They could still be close."

She glanced at Rick and he understood what she was saying. She had given them all the reasons she had left the group, why she wouldn't want to encounter them again. But she was giving them the option; she knew how the group worked, she knew that they might still be in the area, and she knew that Daryl might want to find his brother. As much as she might not want to ever see Darren's group again she was willing to help her new family find them if Daryl and the others wanted to find his brother. After understanding everything she had been put through when she was with Darren and his men Rick couldn't help but feel bad for the girl. He felt tightness in his chest as he looked at her, watching her green eyes dart between him and Daryl. He had always known that this girl was brave, but this seemed like the bravest thing she had ever done. One glance around at the faces of the rest of his group told him that they all agreed with him.

Maggie was the first to do anything, she made a comforting noise in her throat before she got up from her seat next to Glen and moved over to Emerson so that she could wrap her arms around the redhead. She glanced at Daryl over the top of her friend's head, the look was reproachful - she was angry with him for not trying to comfort Emerson. She could understand that Daryl had a lot to think about, a lot to work through. She could even understand that he might be a bit angry that Emerson had never brought up the fact that she knew a guy named Merle. But she could not forgive him for letting Emerson suffer. He knew how scared she was of Darren's group and he knew how hard it would be for her to share the story with her new group and he hadn't even tried to comfort her. Maggie could not forgive that. She pressed a soft kiss onto the top of Emerson's head and carded her fingers through her long, unruly red hair. "It's going to be okay, Em," she whispered softly. "It's all going to be fine. You'll see." Then she turned to Rick, her arms still wrapped around Emerson. "What are we going to do about this?" she asked their leader.

Rick glanced around the group, taking in their facial expressions. The women were disgusted that Darren's group had treated Emerson the way they had, the men were angry, everyone had fear in their eyes that this group could be anywhere near them. The worst was Daryl, his face betrayed no emotion, and it was blank. That was startling to Rick and he wasn't comfortable with it. "We've just been given a lot of information," he said slowly, glancing around the group again, making sure his gaze landed on every person in the room. "And that's on top of an already stressful morning. I don't think we should make any big decisions today. We need to take some time to think about what we've just learned. And then we'll come back later and have a group vote on the matter." He stood up and moved over to Emerson and Maggie, his hand resting on the redhead's shoulder, "Go get some rest," he told her, his voice and eyes soft. "You need it."

-.-.-.-.-

Emerson didn't see Daryl for the rest of the day. She had taken Rick's advice and gone to their room to rest but Daryl hadn't followed her. And when Lori came to get her for dinner she learned that Daryl had gone out hunting in the woods outside of the school shortly after the group meeting and that he hadn't gotten back yet. That had stung, he hadn't even said goodbye to her. She had expected him to be angry with her, she had even expected him to need time and space to think things over. But to leave the school without even letting her know, or saying goodbye. She hadn't expected that.

Everyone was very gentle with her during the evening. Emerson didn't like it. She had finally yelled at the group, she told them that she was okay and that she was more worried about them then they should be about her. She didn't want them to be gentle or careful around her anymore. It worked and by the time everyone had gone to bed they were treating her normally. She didn't go back to the bedroom after everyone went to bed. She figured that she had very obviously chased Daryl out of the college during the day, the last thing she wanted to do was to chase him from the bed that night. She stayed in the common room, reading a book she had found in the dorm room by the firelight. The book was good because it gave her something to focus on. She had read it before - had to read _A Farewell to Arms_ in high school, but it had been so long that she had forgotten the story and never found herself bored while reading it.

She was so engrossed in the book that she didn't notice Daryl standing in the doorway of the common room watching her until he walked closer to the couch. She gasped when she caught his movement; she had a second of irrational fear when she thought that he was a Walker. "Oh shit," she whispered, pressing her hand against her chest and trying to take slow, even breaths. "You scared me. How long have you been there?"

Daryl shrugged as he moved closer to the couch. "Maybe ten minutes," he said as he came to stand in front of the couch. Emerson drew her legs up closer to her body to give him room to sit down on the couch, but he remained standing. "You looked so calm," he said softly, explaining why he hadn't interrupted her reading earlier. "I didn't want to interrupt that."

Emerson smiled softly as she closed the book and placed it on the floor in front of the couch. "You wouldn't have been interrupting," she said softly. "I've been waiting for you to get home anyway. How are you? Are you okay?" Daryl scoffed and shook his head before he told her that he should be the one asking her that question. "No," Emerson said with a shake of her own head, "Daryl. I know you must think that I betrayed you. But for the longest time I had no idea that my Merle and your brother Merle were the same man. And then when I did know I didn't want to tell you. I wasn't sure if we'd ever be able to find the group again or even if your brother was still part of the group. I didn't want to make you hope that we could find your brother and then let you down. I just didn't want to let you down."

Daryl shook his head again and chuckled ruefully. "You didn't let me down, Em," he said, his voice so soft that Emerson had to believe him. "And I don't think that you betrayed me."

Emerson was surprised at that news. "What?" she asked him softly. "Why? I wouldn't blame you, I'd actually understand. And if you weren't angry with me then why did you leave? Without even saying goodbye? I thought that you were pissed at me."

A dark look crossed Daryl's face as he finally sat down on the couch next to her. "I didn't think that you would want to see me," he said honestly. "I knew what they did to you when you were with Darren and his men. And I know that it still hurts you and haunts you. I knew that it would be hard to tell the rest of our group about it. But I never expected to find out that my brother had played a part in it. I listened to you and all I could do was wonder how you could stand to be around me. I didn't want to remind you of that time. So I left."

"Oh Daryl," she said softly, reaching out to grab his hand. "You don't remind me of that. And you don't remind me of him. The two of you are so different. You could never remind me of him. And I don't ever want you to wonder if I can stand to be around you. I love," she paused for a moment, "being around you. I'd never want you to disappear. Especially now, I thought you were angry with me," she added, chuckling softly as she realized that there were tears spilling down her cheeks. "Look at me," she whispered, "I'm a complete and utter mess."

Daryl smiled at her softly before he reached out and gently grasped her chin, "I couldn't be angry at you for this," he said softly. "Don't get me wrong, I can be angry at you. But I could never be angry at you for this. It's hard for you - I know that." He paused and Emerson didn't miss the dark look that crossed his face again. "I just need you to tell me something," he said, his brown eyes piercing. Emerson nodded; he was being so good and so gentle with her that she wouldn't be able to deny him anything. "Did he," Daryl started, shaking his head angrily as if he couldn't believe he actually had to ask her this. "Did he ever touch you? Hurt you? Treat you like Darren did?"

"No," Emerson said quickly. "No he didn't." It was a lie, but the last thing she wanted to do was hurt Daryl more than she already had. But Daryl knew her well enough to see the lie on her face. He cursed to himself, Emerson sighed, "I'm sorry Daryl," she whispered. He was quiet for a moment, processing. "Do you," Emerson started, trying to figure out how to phrase her question. "Do you want to try to find him?"

"Not now," Daryl growled as he climbed up off the couch. "Not after I found that out." And then he had stormed out of the room. Emerson remained sitting on the couch. Daryl needed space. But she couldn't help but think that when he calmed down he would regret saying that he didn't want to find his brother. She belonged to Daryl and she knew that deep down he knew that he belonged to her. But Merle was his blood, his family. And that was going to count for something. She would have to fix it.

* * *

Author's note:  
Hello dears! We're back again.  
I hope you liked this chapter! You should **review** to let me know.  
As always special thanks to: _Heavenly Azure, Hermionechan90, NanciDrew, StopTheBully, DarriE,_ and _Elemental-Angel-Fox _for adding this story to their Favorites List. And to: _FanFicGirl10, cassie-snape, Dalonega Noquisi, MissAmazing101, NanciDrew, StopTheBully, _and _fireflyandowl_ for adding this story to their Alerts List.  
But as always the **BIGGEST** of **SPECIAL THANKS** goes to those of you that **REVIEWED** on the last chapter. So here we go:  
**piratejessieswaby:** yup, he's going to be pissed. Just wait until he sees Merle. (You know ... if he does.)  
**WinterIsComing1015:** Haha! Don't even worry about it. I needed the guilt trip. And I'm glad that you liked that they were able to work things out verbally (there was more of that in this chapter.) After episodes like last night I think it's a good thing to show that it can be done. If only rarely. I hope that you liked this chapter!  
**VealMaster:** You had to do a double take when you realized that I had updated again? Now that is just sad. I'm so glad that you're enjoying this story and that even better this is one of your favorite stories. (You really know how to spoil a writer don't you? I'm flattered!) As far as what I plan to do with Daryl and Merle. He's going to consider running away with Merle. But don't worry, I'm going a totally different direction as the show (though parts of it will be similar. Lori for instance is going to have to ... yup). But that's a story for a different chapter. As always I hope that you enjoyed this chapter!  
**goodnightlove:** Or bianca! I'm so glad that you a fanficholic! There wasn't much Emeryl action in the last chapter, but there's some coming up. Promises. And Glenn coco! Yes! I was hoping that someone would bring that up!  
Yes! I saw 3x09! And 3x10! Did you see last night's episode? It was amazing! And scary! And sad! And heartbreaking! And amazing!  
**greenstarlight0:** Haha! I'm glad that you liked the last chapter and I hope that you liked this chapter as well! Love from Norfolk!  
**Kay1104: **Hello dear! I'm glad that you loved the last chapter and I hope that you loved this one too!  
**DBugMom:** Nope, you didn't have to wait too long! I'm so so glad that you enjoyed the last chapter and I hope that you liked this one! Apologize to your husband for me for making him think that you were crazy. :p  
**FanFicGirl10: **Yay I am back! I'm so glad that you enjoyed the last chapter! I'm a big fan of jealous Daryl too ... not gonna lie. Love him actually.  
**Embers in the flames: **Yay! Well happy post-Walking Dead- Day! I always feel bad the day after an episode airs so I figured that you guys could use a little pick-me-up.  
**ResidentGoth: **Happy as ever to provide you an excuse from homework! I hope that you managed to get it done though. And I hope even more that you liked this chapter. What was your biggest issue with last week's episode? And how about this one? Did you like it?  
**mischieflover: **I'm so glad you stuck around! If it makes you feel any better I couldn't stop thinking about this story either. Just couldn't get any writing mojo going. But it's back now! I hope that you liked this last chapter and I missed you too!  
**casper6six6:** Here you go dear! Another update, though Daryl hasn't found Merle's group yet, all in good time! I hope that you liked this chapter!  
**Malachite16819: **Here you go darling!  
**MrsGooglyBear: **I'm so glad that you love this story and I hope that you enjoyed this chapter too!  
**SweetCaroline87: **Haha that was probably my favorite part about the whole chapter. All I could think about was what I would do if someone grabbed me ... and I would bit them. Then I thought about how Daryl would react and all I could hear was him saying something along the lines of, "atta girl!" I loved it!  
**cloudscollide: **And I love love love that you love where this story is going! Thank you so much for stopping by to review! And yeah, I'm making a point to keep the show and the story separate. But I agree ... AMC get on this shit. Contact me about Emerson. As far as Woodberry and Michonne and the others - I have plans! MWAHAHAHAHA!  
**Mrs. Kyle Hobbes: **Look at you! Am I doing your school any justice at all? I'm pretty much making things up as I go. :D  
**Gaby de Brabant: **Oh no! Don't cry! That's not what I want at all! Be happy! Be super, super happy! That's what I want! I'm so glad that you liked the last chapter and I hope that you liked this one as well! And of course I saw the last episode! It was great. Have you seen last night's episode yet? AMAZING!  
**Kittykatattack7: **Hello dear! I'm so glad you liked the prologue! What about the other thirty-one chapters?  
**NanciDrew: **You caught up on it in one day? What did you do? Not sleep, or eat or use the bathroom? That's crazy! But I'm so glad that you liked it! And even more that this is the first time that you've read a Walking Dead fic! I feel so special that you chose mine! Yay!  
And that's all I got!  
Thanks for stopping by and reading! I'll see you back here soon!  
Hugs and kisses,  
Chloe Jane.


	34. Chapter Thirty-Three

Disclaimer: I do not own the Walking Dead, although I'm completely obsessed with it and wished I did. Emerson, however, I do own.

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So this story is now in two communities.  
That's pretty cool.

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Happy Walking Dead Day!  
Here's a little something to help you deal with the post Walking Dead blues.  
I know I have them right now.

Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter Thirty-Three:

Lori found Emerson the next morning when the redhead was keeping watch off the roof of the dorm building. Emerson had been trying to find a way to persuade the group to go looking for Darren's group and Merle when the older woman appeared on the roof. Emerson would have been lying if she said that she didn't welcome the interruption. "Hey," she said with a careful grin at Lori. "What's up? I thought T was going to take over for me." She watched Lori's face as she talked and from the look on the woman's face she wasn't up there to relieve her of watch duty. "Lori," she said slowly, "what's wrong?"

Lori shook her head, Emerson thought that she wasn't going to tell her what was going on, but then the woman started talking. "I am so stupid," she said softly. "And disillusioned. After I got over the initial shock of the fact that I was pregnant at the end of the world and probably the worst time I actually wanted this baby. I want this baby." Emerson nodded, wondering why Lori was sharing this with her. "And for the longest time I've been able to convince myself that I could have this baby and survive and that Rick, Carl, the baby, and I could be a family."

"Oh Lori," Emerson breathed when she realized where this was going. "No one could blame you for hoping for that. For believing that."

Lori smiled up at her, the twist in her lips rueful, "It got even worse when you got here. Hershel is great, but he's a vet. You're a real doctor and I was sure that you would be able to save both me and my baby. But I saw your face in the car that day. You don't think you can save both of us do you?" Emerson shook her head slowly, silently cursing herself for her inability to keep her emotions off her face. She opened her mouth to apologize to Lori and to explain to her that she could only save one of them - the baby or the mother, but not both. Lori already knew that though because she shook her head, "You have to save my baby," she said softly. "When the time comes you have to save my baby. And then, once it's done," she swallowed around a lump in her throat. "Once it's done you'll have to take care of me."

Emerson knew Lori didn't mean take care of her in the sense of making sure that she would survive or stitching her stomach up. Lori meant that Emerson would have to kill her before she became a Walker. She shook her head, "Rick would never forgive me," she said softly. "He'd never forgive me for killing you. Not when I could save you now, we could do that before the baby could cause as much damage."

Lori shook her head, a soft smile resting on her lips. She and Emerson hadn't known each other for more than a month, but the girl was part of the group - part of the family. And right now she was fighting to find a way to save Lori, the older woman loved her for that. But she loved her baby more. She reached out and in motherly gesture she brushed Emerson's bangs out of her eyes. "I'm too far along now, Em," she said softly. "You'd kill us both if you tried." Emerson shook her head violently and told Lori that she was only around six months along. It was late, but not too late yet. Lori shook her head again, "No," she said softly.

Emerson cursed out loud when she realized what Lori was saying. When Emerson had guessed that Lori was around six months along she had stupidly not taken into account that both the mother and the baby were malnourished and would be smaller than the average pregnant woman. "How far along are you?" she asked Lori softly, she had stopped thinking about how to kill the child to save the mother and had started to wonder how much time Lori had left.

"Eight months," Lori said softly, "or around that. It's hard to keep exact track of the time."

Emerson shook her head, "Rick will never forgive me," she said softly. But this time her tone was different, Lori could tell. She wasn't saying that she wouldn't do it. She was accepting what was going to come and just letting her know what the results would be. "And Carl. They're both going to hate me."

Lori shook her head again. "No, they won't, because you'll be giving them something so much more important than me." Emerson snorted at that, thinking about her conversation with Hershel. _Your wife and mother are dead, but here's a baby_. "You will," Lori said, her voice firmer as she reached out and grabbed Emerson's hand. "You'll be giving them hope. Hope that life goes on and that not everything in this world is dark and scary. That there can be good. They'll watch this baby grow up and they'll know that there is still good and wonderful things in this world."

Emerson stared at the older woman for a moment. She could see what Lori was talking about. She could see why the mother felt that this was the best thing for the group. But it still hurt to admit it. "Why me?" she asked the woman softly. "Why are you telling me all this? Why not them? While you still can?"

"Because they won't understand while I'm still here. And I want you to be the one. You're the only one that can really save my baby. I need you there. And I wanted to give you time to accept it. To get all the things you'll need."

Emerson stared at the older woman for a moment and she shook her head. She wasn't telling Lori no, she couldn't tell her no. She was just silently saying that she was sorry for the situation they were both in. Lori nodded, a gentle smile on her lips and held her arms open for the redhead. Emerson may have been old enough to comfort her brother, to be an adult. But even she needed to be comforted sometimes. A watery laugh escaped Emerson's lips as she basically lunged forward and wrapped her arms around Lori, tears spilling down her cheeks. She was crying for Lori, and for herself, and for Rick and Carl. They stood like that for a few minutes - their arms wrapped around each other, crying into the other's shoulders and were still like that when T-Dog came to take over for Emerson.

"Am I interrupting something?" he asked, his tone light when he walked onto the widow's walk to see the two women hugging and crying. "I can come back? Unless this is some kinky threesome in the making and then I'm going to stay."

This caused Emerson to laugh as she pulled away from Lori and wiped at the tears on her cheeks. "No," she said, shaking her head. "No threesome. It was a couple," she joked, "but Lori just told me she had to end things. Apparently women were just a phase for her." That caused T-Dog and even Lori to laugh and Emerson smiled, proud of herself for being able to act remotely normal. "I'm going to go talk to Rick and the others," Emerson said with a nod as she pulled even further away from Lori. "We're going to need to go on a raid so that we're ready when this baby comes. And you," she added, pointing at the older woman, "Had I known that you were at eight months I would have told you bed rest a while ago. Go, stop standing, rest." And then before Lori could argue Emerson had turned and run down the stairs to go find the rest of the group.

-.-.-.-.-

"No," Daryl said later that evening when Rick told him what the group had decided. Daryl had been out in the woods hunting again when Rick, Emerson, Glenn, and Maggie decided that they needed to do a raid for formula and any other baby things they could get. Of course Emerson would go, she knew what she was looking for and Rick had decided that Maggie would be the one to go with her. That was what Daryl had a problem with. He knew that they had to go on a raid. He was even okay with Emerson going. But he wasn't going to let her go with just Maggie. "I'll go with you," he said. "Or take Glenn as well. You two can't go out on your own."

"We need you and Glenn here," Rick spoke up. He could see by the look on Emerson's face that she was about to agree with Daryl. She felt so bad about what she had told him the night before that she was willing to listen to him now. "Lori's going to have the baby soon and Em has brought up the fact that we still haven't cleared the school infirmary. There might be stuff in there that could help her. She needs us to clear it soon so it's ready when Lori goes into labor. And we need to start doing runs for formula. The last thing we want is for the baby to come and we don't have any. She and Maggie are going to go." Daryl shook his head again, but Rick could tell that he was resigned to the idea. Daryl was a good man and though he might not like the plan he understood why it had to be done.

Emerson smiled softly at him and walked closer, tucking herself under his arm without an invitation and cuddling into his side. "I'm going to be fine," she said softly. "I won't do anything stupid and I've already promised Glenn that I'm bringing Maggie back. She's told me she'll make the same promise to you. Besides, you'll be so busy clearing the infirmary that you won't even notice I'm gone."

Daryl's arm tightened around the small redhead, he was glad for the reassurance that she actually wanted to be around him. "When are you leaving?" he asked her quietly.

"Tomorrow morning," she said, flinching slightly when Daryl's arm tightened even more around her. "We're just going to Glenwood. We'll be back by tomorrow afternoon. We'll probably be back before you're done with the infirmary. There's bound to be quite a few Walkers in there."

"And it's just the two of you going?" Daryl asked, glancing between Emerson and Rick. They both nodded, but Daryl imagined that he saw them shoot a significant look between each other before they did. He wanted to ask them if they were up to something, he didn't like being left out of plans, but he honestly couldn't take any more bad news at the moment. "Okay," he said with a slow nod. Emerson smiled up at him for a moment before she stood on her tiptoes so that she could press a kiss onto his cheek. He smiled at the action and steered the small woman away from Rick before he whispered, "Since you'll be gone early tomorrow I suppose we should go to bed early tonight."

Emerson's eyes had lit up at the promise of the word _we_. They hadn't slept in the same room the night before and even though he had wrapped his arm around her she still hadn't known if he was feeling better about what she had told him the night before. But this promise, this _we_ - meant that they were getting back to normal. She allowed Daryl to steer her further out of the room as she called over her shoulder, "Goodnight Rick!"

They didn't actually end up doing anything other than falling asleep while cuddling. But if Daryl was disappointed with that he didn't voice his opinion. Things felt even more back to normal the next morning when Emerson climbed out of the bed so that she could get dressed and Daryl rolled over, his sleepy blue eyes following her around the bedroom as she got dressed. She smiled at him as she pulled her long red hair into a messy bun so that it would be out of the way and harder for anyone to grab. "What are you doing up so early?" she teased as she leaned over the bed to press a soft kiss onto his lips. "You should be sleeping," she added as she started to pull away.

Daryl didn't let her get too far though. He grasped her chin and pulled her closer to him so that he could kiss her again. "Come back to me," he said gruffly when he finally allowed Emerson to pull away from him.

Emerson smiled at what was quickly becoming their routine goodbye. "I always will," she said softly. She leaned forward and pressed a hard, close mouthed kiss on Daryl's lips before she pulled away again.

He caught her hand as she moved away from the bed, "In one piece," he added.

"Of course," Emerson said as she pulled her hand out of his. "I'm not a jigsaw puzzle." Daryl smiled at her, he knew her well enough to know that she made jokes when she was nervous and he wasn't going to take that away from her by telling her to be serious. He watched her as she walked out of the room. She paused at the doorway and turned around, her hand resting on the door frame, "I'll be back by tonight," she said, her tone and face serious. "I promise." And then she was gone.

-.-.-.-.-

"So what are you girls looking for?" Ben asked as the three of them sat in the car, watching the small family owned grocery store through the tinted windows.

Maggie glanced at Emerson, a tense look in her eyes, she wasn't comfortable with Ben being with them. Emerson shrugged, Rick seemed to trust the guy, he was the one that suggested that the women take Ben with them. "I count five Walkers outside," Maggie said, ignoring Ben's question and going back to the matter at hand. "There could be more on the inside, lots more. And we'll have to be quiet when we go in. The last thing we need is for them to surround the store and close us in."

"That would be a nightmare," Emerson agreed with a nod, remembering the story Glenn had told her about the day they had met Rick and how they had gotten out of the building that was surrounded by Walkers. She craned her head so that she could look in the back seat, "What do you think, Marine?" she asked, trying to include Ben in the decision making process since Maggie was pointedly ignoring him. She figured that it was only fair to ask him his opinion since he would be going out with them, risking his life too. "And what do you need?" she asked him.

"We're looking for medicine," Ben admitted. "All we found in the dorm rooms was Advil and birth control, which would be great if we were spending our days hung over. But we're not. So things like cough medicine and any other drugs I can get my hands on really. What about you guys?"

The girls shrugged their shoulders, both were unsure of why they were hiding the true nature of this run. Saying that they needed baby formula seemed harmless enough, but they were both protective of it, they didn't want Ben to know. Ben nodded he seemed to understand that he wasn't going to get anything more from the girls. "So," Emerson said after a minute or so of silence. "Anyone opposed to simply making a run for the store? We can stay in this car all day and debate about how many Walkers are in that building, but we're never really going to know until we get in there." Maggie nodded, the girl had a point. She pulled her gun out of the bag at Emerson's feet and attached the suppressor to it before she took the safety off. Emerson reached behind her and pulled the gun that Daryl had forced her to agree to take with her out of the back of her pants. She handed it to Ben, "Only use it if you absolutely have to," she warned him, "there's no silencer."

Maggie grabbed her wrist, "Are you sure it's safe to give that to him?" the brunette hissed, though in the quiet car Emerson was sure that Ben would be able to hear her.

Emerson nodded, "He's going in there too. I don't know about you, but I'd rather have him have a way to protect himself than to have to play knight in shining armor to his damsel in distress." Her green eyes darted to Ben and she bit back a grin when she noticed the affronted look on his face. "Besides, Rick seems to trust him," she added, glancing back at Maggie. She held back on saying that she trusted him too. There were ways he could have killed her when he had her tied up in his building, ways that wouldn't have involved a gun, but he hadn't. That had to count for something.

Maggie sighed and nodded before she glanced back at the store. There was a sign on the door inviting people to take only what they needed and wishing them good luck. "There's no chain on the door," she said softly. "That'll make it easy to get into the store for both us and other Walkers. It might also mean that everything has been cleared out already. This might be useless."

"You never know until you try," Emerson said with a shrug as she pulled out two knives from her belt. "Let's go. We're waisting daylight and I promised both Glenn and Daryl that we'd be back by sundown." Maggie grinned at that, she had promised Daryl that they would get back well before sundown. She knew that Emerson got annoyed when Daryl worried so much about her, but she thought it was sweet. And Emerson hadn't known Daryl from the farm - it had always been obvious that he cared about the group, but he cared about Emerson differently, and everyone could tell that it was good for him - to care for someone like that.

"One," she said, moving toward the door so that she could open it and bolt toward the store.

"Wait," Emerson interrupted, reaching out so that she could grab Ben's wrist. She may have felt like she could trust him, but she wanted to make sure that he understood something. "Part of why Rick said that we could take you with us was because you left your sister and her friends without any weapons. If you betray us or do anything to hurt us then you won't see your sister again." She felt horrible threatening his sister like that, but she knew that not only would it make Maggie feel better about him coming with them, but it also made it clear to Ben that he wasn't allowed to try anything.

Ben nodded, he understood her warning. The redhead didn't like giving it, but she definitely meant it. "Don't worry Little Mermaid," he said with a rye twist of his lips. "I'm not like your old group." That was promising, good news even, though Emerson tried not to react to it. Ben didn't know the half of her old group. She nodded before she turned to Maggie, signaling that she was ready to go again.

"One," Maggie said, beginning the count, "two, three." On three as if they had practiced this Maggie and Ben opened the driver's and the back door at the same time and bolted out of the car. Emerson jumped over the center console and quickly followed them out into the bright sunlight. They had kept a close count on the Walkers near the store and Maggie had been right, there were only five of them outside. They spotted the group of humans quickly though and began to move toward them. Emerson threw one of her knives and quickly took down the one at the front of the group. Ben let out a low whistle as he watched the knife sail through the air and embed itself right between the Walker's eyes. "Shut up," Maggie hissed at him though her eyes glinted with pride as she twisted the knife and pulled it out before handing it back to Emerson. "Do you want to draw more of them toward us?" She shot one of the Walkers and even with the silencer on the gun it still seemed loud. Emerson flinched as she lunged forward and drove her knife into the skull of another Walker. She went down to the ground with it so that Maggie could shoot another Walker without worrying about shooting her friend. By the time Emerson had pulled her knife out of her second Walker and stood up Maggie had taken care of the fifth Walker and the group was ready to head toward the store.

"Woah," Ben had breathed quietly to Emerson as they ran quickly toward the store. "I don't think I need this gun. With you two around I don't think I'd have to worry about another Walker again."

Emerson shrugged as they reached the doors of the store, "We've had a lot of practice," she muttered as she motioned for Ben to go into the store first. She paused for a moment at the door, under the pretense of looking around outside to see if any other Walkers had heard them, but she was really staring at the sign on the door. She shook her head, she had known the family who owned this store and the sign didn't surprise her at all. Of course they would cut their losses and try to escape, but they would never want anyone in the town to be left without supplies. So before they had left they had put up this sign and left the door unchained. They were a good family. And if she knew the people in her town they would pay attention to the sign, they would have only taken what they desperately needed and as long as the store hadn't been looted there would still be things in it.

She had been worried about the store when she heard that Darren and his group had been in the area, but when she and the rest of the group entered the small store it looked untouched, most of its shelves still had more than enough items on them. Emerson swallowed the lump in her throat when she realized that mean the infection had spread quickly through her small town, it didn't give people long to even try to survive. Ben elbowed her gently in the ribs when she walked through the door and closed it behind her, "You okay?" he whispered. They hadn't seen any Walkers yet, but that didn't mean there weren't any in the store. Emerson nodded, unable to say anything. Ben fixed her with a look, on the way to the store it had hit him that this was Emerson's town, her people. "Really?" he asked.

"Let's just hurry up and get this over with," Emerson muttered as she moved further into the store, signaling that Maggie should watch the door while she and Ben cleared out any Walkers. There weren't any in the aisles or behind the counter but Emerson noticed that the doors to the back room were bolted shut and she could swear that she heard something from behind them. She signaled to Ben that he should open the doors and he moved carefully, quickly unbolting one of the doors and swinging it open so that the flow of Walkers would be slow, controlled instead of the rush it would have been if both doors had been opened.

Emerson whistled softly and tossed Ben one of her knives as the first Walker made its slow way out of the room. She didn't recognize the man and she had no trouble watching Ben kill it. Two pushed their way out next. Ben got the first one while Emerson lunged forward and tackled the second Walker to the ground while driving her knife into its skull. While she was on the floor she looked into the back store room there was only one Walker left and it was moving slowly, it had been starved for way too long.

Not to be outdone Ben pulled her off the ground and gently pushed her behind him so that he was between her and the fourth Walker. He wanted to kill it. But as Emerson watched it walk forward she realized that she recognized the Walker. It was a girl and though it was hard for her tell Emerson knew that the girl was about fifteen years old. She had wavy, shoulder length brown hair and was wearing a pair of jeans and a torn and faded band t-shirt. Emerson didn't have to look down to know that it was wearing worn, black converse on its feet. "Wait!" she said, reaching out quickly to still Ben's hand. "This one's mine." Ben shot her a weird look and Emerson sighed, never taking her eyes off the Walker making its way toward her, "I know her," she said softly.

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Author's Note:  
And that's all I've got for now. But I really and truly hope that you guys enjoyed it!  
Hopefully I'll be back later in the week with another update.  
Thanks for stopping by and reading!  
Special thanks goes to: _X-kleineblack-X, StevieB7, elizabethmcauley, missy7293, winkatthesun, ziggystardust1994, 13sara43, Aes Sedai, jessiegdixon, _and _meiunkumo _who added this story to their Favorites List. And to: _Lein-Wan, mereeedithh, wwwjcjade, StevieB7, megwest88, winkathtesun, ziggystardust1994, Aes Sedai, missy7293, WhiskeyHandz, jessegdixon, mylittlegameofwalkingdead, Rendylou, _and _RideBC_ for adding this story to their Alerts List.  
But as always the **BIGGEST** of special thanks goes to those of you that **REVIEWED** on the last chapter:  
**X-Kleineblack-X: **So first of all, I love it when I get new reviewers! It makes me so happy. So I'm not even sorry that you're infatuated with my story! I'm not even sorry! Second of all I am so glad that this is the best Daryl/OC story you've read! (I can only hope that I can continue to live up to that!) And I'm really happy that Emerson isn't an annoying original character. Yes she has a tragic backstory, but the way I see it - any survivors that were still around would have one of those. And I'm glad that you like the parts about the other characters. Overall I'm just really happy about your review! So thank you for that!  
**piratejessieswaby: **Yes, I do promise there will be hell when Merle makes his appearance in the story.  
**Lilone1776: **Yeah Merle did hurt Emerson, but don't worry. I have plans. And I can promise that Merle is definitely going to shake things up. I'm happy for those chapters.  
**goodnightlove: **Oh no! If sad characters tears you up inside then you're really going to hate some of the chapters I have planned for you guys. But don't worry, I think I plan to make this story end happily. At least for now.  
**DBugMom: **See I'm going to have fun with this. Daryl loves both Emerson and Merle. And I might make him choose between the two of them. Haven't figured out that part yet. I hope that you enjoy tonight's episode too. :D  
**Dalonega Noquisi: **OMG! You've switched stories! Welcome to my Walking Dead story! I'm so glad that you're enjoying it! And I hope that you enjoyed this one as well.  
**FanFicGirl10: **Yup, Daryl's not angry at Emerson. He's angry at Merle. Not a fan of his brother touching the girl that he really cares about. I'm glad that you liked the last chapter and I hope you liked this one as well!  
**casper6six6: **Aww, I didn't want to make anybody cry! But I'm really happy that you enjoyed the last chapter!  
**Your Favorite Freak: **I haven't heard from you in forever! But it's okay, because I hadn't updated in almost forever. So it's all good. And I hopefully didn't make you wait too long for this chapter. I hope that you enjoyed it as much as you've enjoyed the story up until this point, you sneaky reader you!  
**mischieflover: **You're not alone. I've always had a soft sport for Merle. If I met him on the street today I'd probably run in the other direction, but if there was a zombie apocalypse I would want him on my team. See - irrational. And don't even worry about being appropriately hateful I have some plans for Merle.  
As for mush... you'll be getting some **very **soon. I've already written the chapter. And there's an over abundance of mush. You'll love it.  
**WinterIsComing1015:** I hurt you in the feels? Is it okay that I'm almost borderline happy about it? Don't worry, Daryl wasn't mad at her for too long. He was more angry at Merle than at her, he just needed a moment to understand things.  
Now as far as Merle and Emerson go I was purposefully vague. He may have just hit her ... or maybe raped her. You guys will have to wait to figure that out. And you're other question about smexy times ... maybeeeee. ;D  
**Gaby de Brabant: **You loved the last chapter more than the one before it? And what about this one? How did you feel about this one? I hope that you loved it! I really do! Now as far as Merle goes, they are going to find him... I have plans.  
**winkatthesun: **I am so glad that you stumbled upon this story as well. It makes me really, really happy. I love when I get new reviewers. I'm sorry that the story kept you from sleep for a while, but at least you only had a few chapters left! I hope that you enjoyed this chapter as much as you enjoyed the previous ones!  
I'm glad that you think my story does Daryl justice. That is probably my biggest worry. Honestly, I'm constantly worrying that I've ruined Daryl in some way. And I'm glad you like Matt. He's hard to write sometimes because I have a little brother Matt's age and when I'm writing about him all I can do is imagine my little brother and it breaks my heart.  
As always, I'm thrilled to have another fan and a diehard Emeryl shipper! I want to slowly convert everyone until AMC contacts me and buys Emerson from me and then pays me to act the part. :D  
**missy7293: **I love you honey! I was having so much fun reading your reviews! I would check my email and I would be like, "what chapter is missy on now?" I love when people review while they're on a reading frenzy. I hope that you liked this chapter as well!  
**Kay1104: **I agree, they do need to be happy. And they will in just a few chapters. I promise. :D  
**saku-lee: **Yay! I'm so glad that you went stalker over my fic and that you found time to read all the chapters even with your hands full with what I assume are adorable little babies! I'm really happy that you're enjoying the story so far and I hope that you liked this chapter too. (I've got some fun things in store for Daryl ... you'll love it.)  
**jessegdixon: **I'm glad that you're enjoying this story. I was worried about the college. Because I loved the prison, but I didn't want to just rewrite episodes from season three. I'm not sure if the group's going to make it to the prison, but I hope if I do it will do it justice. :D  
**Belgium guest: **Hello dear! Thank you for taking the time to read and review! I'm happy that you're enjoying this story so far and I am so sorry that season 3 hasn't started for you guys yet. I promise you're going to love it when you get it! And you've got it wrong :p I totally freak out about the large number of reviews I have. But I do it quietly, internally. And I am just so thankful that people are enjoying this story and the way I've portrayed the characters, I was worried about that.  
**Huzzah-94: **Don't worry dear, I left you guys hanging for several months. I can't be mad at you for forgetting to review on the last chapter! I'm happy to be back and I'm so happy that you enjoyed the last chapter. I've got some fun planned for you guys!  
**DixonLove:** Hello dear! Here's the new chapter! I hope that you love it!  
**mylittlegameofwalkingdead: **Okay, your reviews were so much fun to read! I love that you reviewed on several different chapters! I really enjoy reading people's reactions to things. So your reviews made my day! I could track your progress in the story and it was so much fun.  
I'm super glad that you enjoy Emerson so much between her ability to take care of herself and her knowledge that Daryl's just a "big adorable sweety puppy cutey," she is pretty different from other OCs.  
Well here's your update dear, and I hope that you absolutely loved it!  
**elfgirrl: **Hola nuevo reviewer! I'm so glad that you're enjoying this story and I hope that you liked this chapter as well! Let me know, darling.  
**DancingUnderMoonlight18: **Glad to be back, darling. I'm glad that you enjoyed the last chapter as I hope that you enjoyed this one as well. I also hope that you had a little more time to read it than the last time. :p  
And that's all I've got for now.  
I love you guys dearly and I hope that you loved this chapter as much as I loved it.  
And I hope I did a bit to alleviate the post Walking Dead blues that I know we all feel.  
Until next time, happy reading.  
Hugs and kisses,  
Chloe Jane.


	35. Chapter Thirty-Four

Disclaimer: I do not own the Walking Dead, although I'm completely obsessed with it and wished I did. Emerson, however, I do own.

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So starting after this chapter the story is going to be rated M.  
(I'm sure that you all know why ... )

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Incase anyone is interested, I'm going to need a beta reader ... just for the next chapter.  
My wonderful, amazing beta had to take a small break (real life bites everyone in the ass).  
And the next chapter definitely needs one. Haven't written much of what is included  
in the next chapter, and I need someone to read it and tell me if it's completely awkward.  
So message me if you're interested.  
Hopefully someone is.

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One more thing!  
I'm going on vacation from this Saturday to next Saturday.  
I'm hoping that there is internet. But there might not be.  
So keep your fingers crossed.

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And now I've said too much.  
Most people aren't reading by right now.  
Am I right?  
Anyone still here?  
Hello?  
No.  
Okay, enjoy.

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Chapter Thirty-Four:

_"Hey Em?" the thirteen year old Gracie asked her old baby sitter, "how do you know when a guy likes you?" Emerson glanced up from the picture frame she was painting. She had come into town for the week to visit her parents before she went on her second tour in the _

_Middle East to Afghanistan and she and Grace were spending the night doing crafts. She raised her eyebrows at the brunette that was sitting on her bed painting her own picture frame. Gracie smiled, "You know, if he's too shy to say it. Like how do you know if he wants to date you or if he thinks of you as just Gracie Williams - no one special?"_

_"First of all," Emerson had said, trying to be stern. "You are thirteen years old, aren't you too young to be worried about things like that? Dating's something you do when you're older." She grinned when Gracie actually looked sad about her answer. "And second of all," she added after a minute long pause, "no one could ever think of you as 'just Gracie Williams' you have always been and will always be someone special." _

_Gracie glanced up at Emerson with a smile spreading across her face. "Really?" she asked, her tone excited. _

_Emerson nodded, "Duh," she said with a grin. "And I bet this boy likes you so much that he gets nervous when he talks to you and he thinks that you could never like him. Why are you waiting for him to tell you that he likes you. You should tell him." Gracie quickly shook her head, she couldn't do that. "No seriously," Emerson said with a nod, "I did that," she grinned. "In high school. With Danny Mason. You remember when I dated him? He helped me babysit you once. Funny looking kid with glasses and hair gel?"_

_Gracie laughed at that, "I was seven and I remember wondering why you were with him," she giggled. "You were too pretty and wild for him."_

_Emerson shrugged, "It was a phase," she said, making an excuse, "I only ever dated the good boy once. It was bad boys from there on out. Anyway, when I decided that I liked Danny I told him because the last thing I wanted to do was wait around for him to grow a pair of balls and ask me out."_

_"Emmy?" a small voice came from her bedroom door. "What's balls?" _

_Emerson and Gracie turned around to see six year old Matt standing in her doorway in his footy pajamas all ready for bed. Gracie started to giggle and Emerson simply shook her head before she held her arms open, inviting her younger brother to come cuddle in her lap. "Something you'll learn about when you're older buddy," she said as she buried her face in her brother's hair and inhaled, smelling him. _

_"So they're not like my basketballs?" Matt asked, glancing between Emerson and Gracie. "Or my soccer ball?" The girls laughed at him and shook their heads before they went back to the conversation at hand. _

_"But seriously," Emerson said with a gentle smile at Gracie. "You should tell him that you like him. Don't wait around for him to figure it out."_

_"And how do you suppose I would do that?" Gracie asked. "Hand him a note that says, 'Do you like me? Check yes or no.' I would get laughed at." Emerson shrugged, when she had told Danny that she liked him she had walked up to him in the cafeteria and kissed him, no preamble or anything, and then she had walked away. It had been enough that the boy had gotten the idea and found her later to tell her that he liked her too. But she wasn't about to suggest that to Gracie, the girl was thirteen. "How would you do it?" Gracie asked her as if she could read Emerson's mind. "If you were me and you really liked a boy how would you tell him that you liked him?"_

_"You could sing to him," she suggested. "No really," she added when Gracie started laughing at her. "Well you don't have to sing to him, but it's all about having fun with it. You don't want to be nervous. That would ruin it. Just watch for a second." She stood up and pulled Matt to his feet so her little brother could dance with her. "Don't know if I could ever be, without you cause boy you complete me. And in time I know that we'll both see that we're all we need. Cause you're the apple to my pie, the straw to my berry, the smoke to my high, and you're the one I wanna marry. Cause you're the one for me, for me. And I'm the one for you, for you. You take the both of us, of us and we're the perfect two." Matt giggled as Emerson scooped him up in her arms and spun them around in a circle, she glanced up at Gracie and grinned, "Come on, try it. It's fun."_

_Gracie shook her head at Emerson as if she couldn't believe she was about to do something so ridiculous, but she climbed off Emerson's bed and joined her and Matt on the floor. She giggled as she danced around the room with the two siblings and sang along with Emerson as the redhead repeated the chorus to the song again. The thirteen year old smiled up at the redhead who was teaching her younger brother how to do the sprinkler. It was times like this when Gracie really missed having Emerson as a babysitter - she was so much fun._

_Emerson pressed a kiss onto Matt's forehead, when they were done singing. "What do you think Matty?" she asked. "If we sang that to you would you love us?"_

_Matt grinned up at his sister and Gracie before his face became somber and serious, "Mommy says love is a big word and you should only say it to family and the person you're going to marry. I'm not going to marry either of you. You have cooties."_

That had been the last time Emerson had seen Gracie. She had left for a year long tour in Afghanistan shortly after that night and when she got back she was only home for one or two days before the infection started to spread and she and Matt left the town. One of her biggest regrets was that she hadn't been able to pick Gracie up when she left town. She had always worried about what had happened to the girl. Even now, she wondered. Why was she locked in the back room of the store? How had this happened to her? "Umm, Red?" Ben asked, his voice tense as he watched the young Walker get closer to Emerson, it picked up speed the closer it got to her. The redhead seemed to be lost in a memory, in another time, she didn't seem to notice how close the Walker was to her. She flinched at the sound of his voice and came back to the present. She stared at the Walker for another moment before she lunged forward, knife raised, and drove her weapon into the Walker's forehead. He swore that he heard a quiet sob escape her lips as she twisted the knife and tore it out of the Walker's head again.

He was going to ask her if she was okay, but when she moved away from the Walker and let the small body hit the ground her face was impassive - business like and emotion free. "Let's get what we need and go," she muttered as she pushed past Ben and walked back toward the front of the store. Ben Shook his head, maybe it was a bad idea for Emerson to have come on the run. She swore that she was okay, but it had to be hard for her to deal with people she knew being Walkers. She was a tough girl, he knew that - had the bite mark to prove it, but this had to hurt, damage her in some way, and she just buried the emotions; it wasn't a good way to deal with what was going on. But he didn't push her, didn't try to convince her to talk. He simply nodded and followed her back toward the front so that they could raid the shelves.

Maggie already had two shopping baskets filled with toilet paper and canned goods. She had decided to ignore the sign inviting them to only take what they desperately needed. She glanced up at Emerson, quietly wondering if she should leave some of the things. Emerson shrugged, it wasn't like there were very many humans left anymore. "Just don't clear the whole store out," she said softly as she headed toward the pharmacy to help Ben pick out the medicines that would be useful. He had to admit that it was helpful to have a medic with him. She knew what every medicine did and what to use it for, without her he would have been flying blind. "You guys have gotten on pretty well," she pointed out softly as she sorted through pill bottles. "No major injuries."

Ben scoffed at that. "There were seven of us when we first locked down the third floor in our dorm," he said. "We lost Tim and Meghan shortly after. Tim was bit, got the fever and died within days. Then he came back." Emerson nodded, wondering if it had been the first time Ben had seen a Walker back. She remembered the first time she saw it happen, nothing could prepare you for that. "Meghan was a little different," he continued. "She came back too, but she hadn't been bit."

"What happened to her?" Emerson asked softly as she watched Maggie head toward the back corner of the store where the baby formula was kept. The store was quiet and there hadn't been any more Walkers in the back room after Gracie, but you could never be too careful.

"She got stabbed in the hand," Ben said with a shrug. "The wound got infected with something, all we had was Neosporin and alcohol wipes. They didn't do any good. She had these seizure things and her jaw would lock up. And then she had trouble breathing and died. When she came back without being bit," he paused, "that was the first time that we realized that there was something wrong with everyone, not just the ones that get bit."

Emerson nodded, "We're all infected," she said softly. "You just turn a little faster if you get bit. If it makes you feel any better you couldn't have done anything for either of them. There's no cure for the fever and I'm willing to bet anything that the girl had tetanus. Without the right medication you can only wait. Quite a few people manage to beat tetanus depending on how recently they got their booster shot. But it's a risk. Without a tetanus shot you wouldn't have been able to do anything." Ben nodded, feeling slightly better now that he knew that there was nothing he could have done. "There won't be Td boosters here," Emerson said, looking around, "they don't sell them in stores. You have to go to the doctor for that. But we're clearing the infirmary at the school today, they should have some hopefully."

Ben looked at her in surprise, "Rick and the men are clearing the infirmary?" he asked. Emerson nodded, her eyebrows raised at the worry in Ben's voice. "We should go back to the school now" Ben said, grabbing the shopping basket filled with pill bottles and rushing toward where Maggie had left her baskets. "Before they knew what the infection was, when all their students were getting high fevers they quarantined about a hundred of them at least in the infirmary. Sent nurses and doctors in with masks and gloves and locked the doors. They're still there. Lindsey says that they never opened the infirmary again after the initial quarantine - they just started to evacuate students."

Maggie was there in a second, her basket had four containers of baby formula in it. She shrugged when she caught Emerson's worried glance, "That's all they had," she said before she reached in and pulled out a can of dog food. "But I did find lots of this. There's a whole basket of it back there waiting for you." Then she turned to look at Ben, "Are you lying about the infirmary?" she asked him though she wasn't sure why he would lie about that. Ben shook his head. Maggie nodded and stooped to pick up her second basket so she and Ben were each holding two baskets. "Then let's go. Em, since you only have one basket you better be watching our backs."

"You know I will," Emerson promised as she followed the two out of the store, the basket of dog food in one hand, two knives held in the other.

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Carl and Matt had been waiting all day by the gate for when Maggie, Ben, and Emerson would get back to the school. When they saw the car coming toward the car lot they unlocked the iron gate and waited to swing it open until the last moment, there weren't many Walkers outside the school, but the few that were out there seemed to have realized that the gate was how the humans got in and out and they hung out near there. Maggie drove the car through quickly and Emerson jumped out so that she could help the two boys shut and lock the gate. And then once the gate was locked and just because she could she pulled a knife out of her belt and killed one of the Walkers on the other side of the gate. It wasn't that it was really a danger to anyone, not right at the moment. But it felt like a message to the other Walkers, if they were even able to process information, that they weren't safe and that she'd go after them if they endangered her family.

Once she had pulled her knife out of the Walker's head and wiped off the blood on the grass she turned to look at Matt and Carl. "Hey babes," she said softly as she wrapped her arms around their shoulders and began to walk quickly toward the gate at the other end of the car lot so that they could unlock that and Maggie could drive the car up to the dorm building and they could unload the supplies. "Is the group still working on clearing the infirmary?" she asked, her voice tense.

Carl shook his head, "It was harder than they expected. They didn't clear all of it and they gave up about an hour ago. They said they needed more people." Emerson nodded, she could understand that, especially if there were as many Walkers in the building as Ben had predicted. She asked the boys if anyone had gotten hurt while they cleared the infirmary. The two boys glanced at each other and Emerson tensed up, something had happened to Daryl. If it had been anyone else they would have just told her. "He wasn't bit," Carl said softly, wrapping his arm around Emerson's waist, trying to calm her down. "But umm, he was hurt. Hershel was still working on him last time we checked."

"Working on him?" Emerson asked, her voice coming out in a scared squeak. "What the hell happened to him?" She normally tried not to use curse words in front of Matt or even Carl though she was sure that the older boy had heard them all before. She broke away from the two boys so that she could walk even faster. "What happened to him?" she asked as the boys started to jog just to keep up with her as she approached the gate. "Is he going to die?"

"Emmy calm down," Matt instructed her as she fumbled with the gate lock, she tried to unlock it with the wrong key twice before she finally got the right one. Maggie and Ben were worried about her, they rolled down the windows to the car so that they could see what was going on. Carl reached out and took the key ring from her hands so that he could unlock the gate for her. She nodded, silently grateful for that, but she still couldn't calm down. "Hershel says he's not going to die," Matt tried to soothe her. "He only got shot in the leg." Emerson's eyebrows shot up at that. Since when did getting shot anywhere become so casual. _He only got shot in the leg?_ she repeated Matt's word. The _only_ implying that the injury could have been worse. As far as she was concerned any bullet wound was a big deal. "Hershel says that he'll be okay," Matt repeated again as if that was going to make everything better.

Emerson glanced at Maggie as Carl started to slowly open the gate, Maggie understood what the redhead was trying to ask. She nodded, "Go," she said quickly, gesturing toward the gate that still wasn't open wide enough for a car to get through. "There isn't much to unload anyway, you go."

Emerson didn't hear the last part of Maggie's statement. She had started running the moment her friend had told her to go. Emerson trusted Hershel and if this had happened to anyone besides Daryl she would have believed him when he said that everything was going to be okay. But this was her man, this was Daryl and he had been shot. Again. She couldn't stop the rueful chuckle that escaped her lips as she ran as quickly as she could toward the dorm building. Only Daryl would manage to get shot twice within a year and also shoot himself with one of his own arrows. He had laughed at her for accidentally stabbing herself in the stomach, but he was worse than she was. How many times could someone survive being shot before their luck ran out and they didn't? She shook her head as she reached the front door to the dorm building, she couldn't think like that, it would only worry her even more. What she needed to do was to tell herself that Hershel was right and that Daryl was going to be okay. And she would have to keep telling herself that until she believed it.

Whoever was keeping watch on the roof of the building must have gotten on the radio and told the group that she was coming because Rick met her at the top of the staircase on the second floor, halting her progress up to the third floor. "Get out of my way Rick," she had growled when she tried to sidestep him and he had countered her move. He even reached out and grabbed her arms in a tight grasp, forcing her to stay put. "I'm not kidding," Emerson muttered, glaring at the group leader. "I am not above punching your face to get past you," she warned.

Rick stood his ground and shook his head, "I'll let you go when I know that you're calm," he told her. Emerson's eyes narrowed, trying to scare him into letting her go. "That isn't calm," Rick pointed out, his grasp tightening around her upper arms for a moment before loosening. It wasn't enough that Emerson would be able to pull away from him, but it wasn't as harsh of a grasp anymore. "Hershel's still working on him and he's been asking for you." The significant look that Rick shot her told her that Daryl was the one asking for her not Hershel. A strangled sounding sob escaped Emerson's lips. She didn't like thinking that Daryl had been asking for her, wondering where she was. Rick nodded, "But you can't go in like this. You can't go in crying and dirty and covered in blood. That's only going to worry him even more. Take a few minutes and clean yourself up. And then you can go see him."

"And whose to say that I won't agree to do that and then the second you let go of me I'll go find him?" Emerson asked before she silently cursed herself for revealing a possible plan.

Rick chuckled before he steered her toward a dorm room to their right. "Because I won't tell you what dorm room he's in. He might not even be on the third floor he could be on this floor or the first one." Emerson had raised her eyebrows at him, wondering why they were in this random second floor dorm room. "The water in the tub's still warm," Rick said, nodding toward the bathroom, and a new pair of clothes is sitting on the toilet." Emerson shook her head at him, they had been ready for her. They had anticipated how she was going to react.

She cleaned all the Walker blood off of herself and changed her clothes in less than five minutes. Rick raised his eyebrows at her when she walked out of the bathroom. "You okay now?" he asked her quietly. She nodded silently, not trusting her voice. "Calm?" Rick pressed. Another nod. "Okay," Rick nodded and led her out of the room and back down the stairs to the first floor. He hadn't been lying when he said that Daryl could have been on the first floor. He paused in front of a door about half way down the hallway. "Hershel told me to warn you," he paused again. "It looks worse than it is. There's a lot of blood, but he's sure there's minimal damage." Emerson's breath caught in her throat, there was a lot of blood? How much was a lot? Was Daryl going to need a transfusion? They didn't have the right equipment for that and even if they did there would be no way to be sure that the blood would be a match. Giving him the wrong blood could kill him. Did the people in the group even know their blood types? She knew hers and Matt's, but if Daryl didn't know his the only safe thing would be to give him O blood. Would anyone in the group have that? And they'd be taking a gamble with the Rh negative or positive. Rick watched her face, concern shining in his eyes, "You're worried," he pointed out.

"Of course I'm worried," Emerson muttered, trying to keep the fact that she was internally freaking out from her voice. "But I'm okay," she added, shooting Rick a pointed look that clearly said that he wasn't going to try to stop her from going in the room. "I just want to see him," she said softly. Rick nodded and reached out, placing his hand on Emerson's arm, this one wasn't a restraining touch, but rather a comforting one - one that told her that he was there for her. She appreciated that and gave him a brief smile before she opened the door to the dorm room and walked toward the only bedroom door that was open.

Almost the entire group was in the small room. When they saw her they quickly moved apart, giving her a clear path to the bed. On the way closer to the bed many of them reached out to touch her softly, more comforting hands though Rick's did not leave her arm the entire way. She was glad that Rick had given her the warning about all the blood. There did seem to be a lot all over Daryl's pants and the sheets on the bed and Hershel. Everyone was watching her carefully, trying to determine if she was going to freak out and if they would need to take her from the room, but all of her medical training came to her rescue, as long as she didn't look at Daryl's face she was able to act almost clinical about the wound.

Daryl had been shot just above the knee in the meaty part of his leg. Which was good news in that there was less of a risk of the bullet shattering one of his bones. But it was bad news in that it was more likely to cause nerve or artery damage. "It didn't nick the femoral artery," she said out loud, reaching out to put a comforting hand on Daryl's lower leg, "he would have bled out by now." Hershel nodded and told her quietly that that was what he had thought as well. "Did you get the bullet out?" she asked the older man.

"I was just working on stitching him back up when you came in," Hershel said with a nod as he handed her the bullet. She glanced at the bullet in her hand it was a 9mm, she turned around again, her eyes finding Carol, the older woman always had a 9mm gun. Carol silently nodded, telling Emerson that she had been the one to shoot Daryl. She looked so worried and upset that Emerson couldn't even bring herself to be angry at the woman. She put the bullet in her pocket and reached her free hand out to grab Carol's hand. Before she turned back to Hershel.

"Bone damage?" she asked. "Did you need to use a tourniquet or was pressure enough? How much blood has he lost? Will he need a transfusion? Have you thought of ways to do that?"

"Hey!" Daryl called from the bed, reaching out and taking the hand Emerson had on his leg in his hand. "I'm right here. You can stop talking about me like I'm not." Emerson smiled down at him and leaned over him so that she could press a kiss to the back of his hand. "Are you okay?" Daryl asked her softly.

"I should be asking you that," Emerson muttered, laughing angrily at herself for the tears she could feel prickling at her eyes.

"Hey," Daryl said, shaking his head. He tried to pull his hand out of Emerson's but she wasn't ready to let go of him yet. She didn't care what anyone said about this being minor or the fact that he was obviously okay. It felt as though she had almost lost him and she wasn't ready to let go of him just yet. Daryl smiled at her and forcibly pulled his hand out of her grasp so that he could brush his finger tips at her cheeks, catching any stray tears. "I was worried about you," he admitted quietly. "The whole time you were gone. I was worryin'."

Emerson smiled ruefully and shook her head, "You should have been worrying about yourself, stupid," she joked quietly. She glanced to the side and watched as Hershel worked on stitching up the bullet wound he was almost done, she was amazed that Daryl didn't even seem to notice. She looked back at him, a playful sparkle in her green eyes, "You made me promise to come back in one piece and you couldn't even do it yourself," she teased.

Daryl grinned cheekily up at her and Emerson could reel a blush rising on her cheeks at the way his eyes softened when he looked at her. She could hear Maggie and the boys enter the room behind her, but she couldn't look away from Daryl not yet. Daryl glanced over her shoulder though and she saw his eyes darken in anger. "What's he doing here?" Daryl growled, struggling to sit up. Emerson and Hershel both quickly moved to hold him down on the bed and without looking over her shoulder Emerson knew that Ben had followed Maggie into the room. Daryl made the connection and he quickly turned to look between Emerson and Rick, "He went with you," he accused. "You took him with you and you didn't tell me? You lied to me." He turned to glare at Ben and noticed the gun in the waist band of his pants, "And you gave him a gun? What if he had decided to try to hurt you? You would have been there all alone and we would never have known." He looked at Rick over Emerson's shoulder, "How could you let her and Maggie take a risk like that?" he accused. "If they had died it would have been your fault."

Emerson shook her head, she couldn't stand the pain in Daryl's voice, but she couldn't listen to him either. "No," she said. "It wouldn't have been Rick's fault and that wasn't going to happen. Ben had our back out there," she said, turning her head to smile softly at the marine, "and I don't know about Maggie, but I trust him." Maggie nodded slowly, she agreed with Emerson. Ben had helped them out back there and nothing about him had seemed distrustful.

"So the guy's trustworthy," Daryl muttered angrily. "What if he hadn't been? You still shouldn't have taken the risk."

"Like you took when you brought me to the group?" Emerson asked him angrily. "Like Hershel did when he allowed you guys to live on his farm? Like you guys all did at the beginning when you decided to band together though you didn't even know each other? I get it, people are a risk. But if you treat them all like they're going to stab you in the back you'll never survive. I get that after everything that has happened to me. You should learn that too."

Daryl sighed, his eyes still angry, before he reached his hand up and stroked her cheek again, "I just," he said softly, hesitantly, "I can't lose you."

"That's so not fair," Emerson whispered back quietly. "I can't be mad at you when you say things like that." And Daryl's cheeky grin was back. He knew what he was doing.

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Author's Note:  
And there we go. I've shot Daryl.  
Please don't hate me for it.  
I hope you liked this chapter. And I hope you're excited for what's to come.  
I super, super excited. Hopefully you are too.  
Thank you for stopping by and reading. But special thanks to: _AttackofTheEvilPixies, Chachi94, FinDovahkiin, Auburn And Green, _and _WulfLuvr22_ for adding this story to their Favorites List. And to:_ MiakaKyle, Rendylou, RideBC, BlueBatWing, FinDovahkiin, OmgitsBlondie, justbrie, Auburn And Green, wierdunusualchick, _and _WulfLuvr22_ who added this story to their Alerts List.  
But as always, the **BIGGEST** of **SPECIAL THANKS** goes to those who **REVIEWED** on the last chapter:  
**mylittlegameofwalkingdead: **That's one of the things I miss from the first season. When they still looked at the Walkers like people. Remember the bike Walker who Rick killed out of mercy? Or his cop kid? Or the man that they chopped up to get out of the department store and Rick said he was going to tell his family about him? We lost that somewhere during season two and it makes me sad. I figured I'd bring a bit of it back into this with Emerson and her Walkers. I'm so glad that you're enjoying the story and I hope that you liked this chapter as well!  
**missy7293: **Here's some more, darling! I hope you enjoyed this last chapter and don't worry dear, they'll be sealing the deal very soon. ;D  
**FanFicGirl10: **I'm so glad that you enjoyed the last chapter and I hope that you liked this one too! Thank you so much for your review! I love hearing from you!  
**Franne: **My friend from Belgium! I think you're amazing and I hope that you enjoyed this chapter! I had some fun with it!  
**piratehessieswaby: **I hope that you liked this chapter as well, dear!  
**WinterIsComing1015: **I had so much fun with the scene between Emerson and Lori! I'm with you there, I didn't appreciate her and then she was gone in the most heartbreaking way and it was so sad! And don't worry, smex will happen very soon. **VERY** soon. Just saying.  
And I'm glad that you're enjoying the interaction between Emerson and Ben. I'm an Army brat myself and my fiance is in the Navy. I'm kind of a fan of inter-branch cooperation. Like, there's a mutual respect, but there's always a bit of almost playful resentment which I'm hope I'm displaying here.  
**JerZeeSkyLine: **I'm so excited that you're back and reading about Emerson again! I'm definitely glad to be back. And thank you! I'm truly, very excited about the engagement. It's been a few months and I still can't get used to it!  
**kittykatattack7: **They are stubborn. He'll learn it pretty quickly, especially with Emerson.  
**justbrie: **Oh my god! I love when I get readers who read the story nonstop. It's great to have people that come back for every chapter (amazing even) but it's really fun when someone sat down and read all thirty something chapters in one sitting. I'm so glad that you're enjoying this story and my portrayal of Daryl. I'm still nervous about him.  
And thank you! You're the first person who has enjoyed where I'm taking Emerson and Merle. No one else has been (almost) excited about it. The sad thing is that I really love Merle. So I'm hoping that he can be redeemed. I'm the author and I'm still not sure of that.  
**xxlittlemonster: **Another reader who couldn't stop reading after they started! I love your kind! Thank you for reading and your review! And you certainly know how to make me feel good about myself. (Is it okay that I'm the tiniest bit happy that you're jealous of my talent?) Thank you, once again, thank you so much!  
**Gaby de Brabant: **I'm very sorry that there was very little fluff in this last chapter. But there will be quite a bit of fluff in the next chapter. You'll see and you're going to love it. I hope that you enjoyed this last chapter, even though I shot Daryl. (I couldn't even believe it when I decided)  
**FinDovahkiin: **I love that you love this story so freakin' much! And I'm so glad that you were finally able to log in and save it to your favorites! And thank you so much for liking Emerson! I was so worried when I decided to do an OC for Daryl. People are so attached to him and Carol that I was worried about messing with that. But people really seem to enjoy her and that's good news. I tried to create her in a way that people would like her if they met her, I mean ... I'd hang out with her. Just saying.  
And I'm happy that you're enjoying my Daryl. I like him gruff on the show, I won't lie, but when he shows his sweet, sensitive side my ovaries kind of explode! And that's kind of filtered into my story. I hope that you enjoyed this chapter as well, dear!  
**AuburnAnd Green: **Oh. My. God. I read your review and I won't lied, I squealed. It made me happy! I'm so glad that you found my story and that you've been enjoying it. And that you think that it's great. I hope I didn't make my new dedicated fan wait for too long before I got this chapter out to you. And I hope you enjoyed it!  
**Meg:** You sure know how to flatter a writer! I'm so glad that you're enjoying this story so far. And please, no chair throwing! I always come back! Thank you so much for stopping by to review, I'm so happy that you like Emerson and my versions of the characters and I sincerely hope that you enjoyed this chapter as well!  
**Goodnight Love: **You love the sad chapters the most? Oh no! Me too though actually. The ones that really tug at the heartstrings and seem more real. And you know what chapter you should be excited for? Thirty-five. I'm excited for you guys to read that one.  
I also can't wait for you guys to meet my version of Merle too. I'm kind of in love with him, even if he's a bastard. I hope that you enjoyed this chapter as much as the others!  
Love you dear!  
And that's all I've got for now! Thank you so much for your support everyone!  
Until next time, happy reading.  
Hugs and kisses,  
Chloe Jane.


	36. Chapter Thirty-five

Disclaimer: I do not own the Walking Dead, although I'm completely obsessed with it and wished I did. Emerson, however, I do own.

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Anyone else notice the change in rating?

eh, eh, eh?

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What happened on last night's episode?  
Wait! Don't tell me! I'm on vacation and the condo we're at doesn't have AMC :(  
So I won't get to watch this week's episode until I get home on Saturday.

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Also, let me apologize now ...

I suck at writing about sex.

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All the same, enjoy!

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Chapter Thirty-Five:

"I'm not an invalid," Daryl growled later that night while Emerson helped him hop toward their dorm room with her arm wrapped around his waist and one of his arms draped over her shoulders. "I don't need help getting around, you hear me?"

"I hear you," Emerson countered, rolling her eyes playfully at the older man. Now that he had been stitched up and was okay enough to be grumpy and ornery she was able to relax and breathe. "All the same you were shot in the leg today and I'd really rather that you weren't walking around on your injured leg, okay? Just chalk it up to _doctor's orders_ okay?"

"You never listen to me when you get injured," Daryl pointed out, but he leaned a bit more heavily on Emerson's shoulders. He didn't say anything, but this one shift of weight told her that all of his complaining about her babying him was just for his pride and that he was hurting a bit more than he wanted to admit. "Why should I listen to you?"

"Hmm," Emerson said softly, an unconcerned note to her voice. "Maybe because while we were clearing out the dorm rooms I found a naughty nurse halloween costume," she said, her voice taking a quiet, rougher tone. "If you listen to me we could play doctor and I'll give you a sponge bath."

A growl rose in Daryl's throat and his arm tightened around Emerson's shoulders. "How about we skip the costume and go straight to the sponge bath?" he asked her quietly as they paused in front of their room so that Emerson could open the door. She giggled as she looked around the small living room, silently wondering where Matt was. "He and Carl and Beth are playing monopoly," Daryl said, reading her mind. "And then Carol said that she would read to them. He might not be back in the dorm room until bedtime."

Emerson grinned up at the man as they made their way into the dorm room and she shut the door behind them. Daryl returned her grin when he heard her lock the door. "Okay," she said with a soft, gentle, and even nervous smile. "Sponge bath it is." She helped Daryl over to the couch, "If we do this on the bed you'll have to get off of it again so that I can change the wet sheets," she explained softly. "Real nurses have sponge bath skills, I only had to do it once in Afghanistan and I made a complete mess of everything."

"I don't want to hear about you givin' a sponge bath to another man, Em," Daryl growled as she moved away from him to start boiling some water on the fire in front of the couch. "Some guys might like hearing about what their girls have done. I ain't one of them."

Emerson paused for a moment in front of the fire, hoping that when she finally turned around Daryl wouldn't notice the blush that had risen on her cheeks at the words _their girl_ - that was the first time that she ever heard Daryl imply that she was really his out loud. "Oh don't worry," she said once she was sure that she had the blush under control. "It was a woman." That caught Daryl off guard, she could tell from the way he fidgeted on the couch and the blush that was now rising on his cheeks. "Still don't want to hear about it?" she asked as she stood up to get a wash cloth from the hall closet. "Fine by me," she added with a teasing grin when she walked back into the room. "Stand up," she told him softly once she was standing in front of the couch again.

"I can do it myself," Daryl growled at her when she reached out to help him stand up. He wasn't angry at her, from the look on her face she understood that. She stepped away from him and allowed him to stand up on his own. She got it, he was irritated that he had gotten injured, that there were things that he couldn't do on his own, and the last thing he wanted was someone helping him do the few things he could do by himself. "I'm sorry," he apologized, his voice softer than it had been before. Emerson waved it off as if it were no big deal. "No," Daryl said, catching her hand in his grasp. "Just because I'm angry at myself don't mean I can treat you like shit."

The redhead smiled at him before she moved closer to him again, "Now," she said, her tone cautious. "Can I help you take off your clothes or can you do that on your own?"

Daryl chuckled at that, "Oh," he said with a nod. "You are in complete charge of that."

Emerson smiled up at him before she reached out a timid hand and slid it up under his shirt, her fingers softly grazed over his abs in a barely there touch. Soon her other hand joined the first one and she was sliding her hands up his chest, pushing the shirt up with them. Once she reached his armpits she pulled her hands away from his chest and nodded pointedly toward his arms. Daryl smiled at her as he lifted his arms above his head and she stood on her tiptoes so that she could push the shirt over his head. Once Daryl had pushed the shirt off his arms and dropped it to the floor Emerson stood in front of him, just staring at his chest. Daryl could see the dark, angry look in her green eyes and he shifted so that he could cross his arms over his chest, an attempt to hide the scars from her view. "No," she whispered with a gentle shake of her head. "Don't hide them." She reached out and gently pulled his arms off of his chest. "You're beautiful," she whispered as she dropped a kiss onto the biggest scar on his chest.

Daryl smiled down at her. He had never thought of himself as beautiful, or even particularly good looking. But when this girl, this gorgeous redhead told him that she thought that he was beautiful he could almost believe it. "You're not that bad yourself," he complimented her quietly.

Emerson made a face, scrunching up her nose, and shrugged, "Not like this," she said softly, one of her hands darting forward to rest on his chest again. She lowered her hand, letting it slide over his ab muscles again. "Not like you." She reached both hands down so that she could unbutton Daryl's pants and pull the zipper down. "God Daryl," she said, finally pulling her green eyes away from his chest so that she could look into his eyes, "you're fucking perfect."

He wanted to tell her that he thought that she was perfect. That as far as he was concerned he was merely okay and that she was the one that was perfect. But he couldn't get the words out. And even if he could he was sure that it would sound awkward. He wasn't good with words like Emerson was. He didn't know how to compliment people. And he felt bad about that. He wished that he could make this redhead feel as special as she made him feel on a daily basis, but he didn't know how to do it. She didn't seem to need anything in response to her statement. Because she grinned at him and stood up on her tiptoes so that she could press a kiss onto his lips and then she slowly, carefully pulled his pants down, being careful of the bullet wound at the top of his knee. Once she had the pants past his knees she gently pushed him backwards until he was once again sitting on the couch. She knelt down on the floor in front of him and Daryl had to look away, to think about nuns and grandmothers, just so that he wouldn't imagine the other things that Emerson could do in that position.

"Pervert," she breathed quietly with a smirk on her face as she untied his boots and gently pulled them off his feet, followed by his socks. Daryl swallowed around a lump in his throat, of course she could read his thoughts at a time like this. She laughed quietly at the blush that burned its way across his cheeks. "Daryl stop," she whispered quietly. "I was just teasing you, no need to be embarrassed." Daryl watched as she slowly pulled his pants the rest of the way down his legs and wondered if she had been teasing him by kneeling in front of him or teasing him when she called him a pervert. Knowing Emerson he figured that it was both. The girl knew exactly what to do to make him go crazy. She smiled sweetly up at him before she stood up and moved toward the fireplace so that she could get the pot of water and bring it back to the couch. Daryl nodded silently, Emerson definitely knew what she was doing to him.

Before she came back to the couch she walked toward the closet again and came back with a roll of plastic wrap. She knelt in front of him again and gently raised his leg so that she could wrap the plastic wrap around his leg. "Don't want water to get into your stitches," she whispered softly. She laughed, shaking her head, "You could probably do this yourself in the bath," she told him as she tied the plastic wrap as tightly as she could. Then she turned back to the pot and added some soap to the water and dipped the washcloth into the warm water. She wrung the cloth out and rocked up onto her knees so that she would be able to reach his forehead. "Tilt your head back," she whispered, turning back around so that she could cup some water in her hands and drop it on his hair. Then she poured some shampoo into her hand and began to massage it into his scalp.

Daryl couldn't stop the soft moan that escaped his lips as she continued to massage. "A man could get use to this," he admitted with a smile.

Emerson laughed quietly at him and shook her head, "I suppose so," she said quietly. "Though you better not get shot again," she warned. "I'm being nice this time. If you ever make me worry like I had to do earlier today then I will kill you myself."

Daryl grinned up at her as she began to gently rinse the shampoo out of his head, "You should listen to that warning too, you know?" he asked her. "You about give me a heart attack most of the time." Emerson bit back a smile and shrugged at him before she returned to the wash cloth and began to scrub him behind the ears, down the neck, across the chest. Then she grabbed his shoulders and forced him to lean forward on the couch. "Em," Daryl warned quietly, knowing what Emerson would see when she looked at his back.

His quiet warning hadn't been enough. "Oh God," she gasped when she looked down at his back. "Daryl," she whispered, reaching a hand out to brush against the long scar that cut diagonally across his back. She had seen the scars on his chest and had thought those were bad, but they were nothing compared to the jagged, uneven, deep scars that littered his back. Daryl reached forward with his hand in an attempt to comfort her, but Emerson shook her head and stood up. She climbed onto the couch next to him and nudged him forward so that she could sit behind him with one leg on either side. "I'm so sorry," she whispered as she wrapped her arms around his chest from behind and leaned her forehead against his warm skin. "I hate him," she whispered, moving her head so that she could press her lips against the biggest scar. "I don't even know him and I hate him. For what he did to you. I'm sorry."

Daryl couldn't hear her crying, but he could feel it as two large tear drops landed on his back. "Don' worry none about it," he told her. "It was long ago." Emerson hesitated for a moment before he felt her nod and she pressed another kiss against his back. She sniffed back more of her tears before she unwrapped her arms and began to wash his back with the wash cloth. She was careful around the scars, gentle and soft. And every so often she would press a kiss against his skin and mutter the words _so sorry_ again. Daryl turned his head and stared at the woman sitting behind him, silently wondering how the woman he had met in the woods not so long ago had become this amazing woman, not that she hadn't been amazing when they first met, but it was different. In the woods she had been tough, angry, and had worked hard to convince Daryl that she didn't need his help. She was still that tough girl, but she was softer now, gentler, and sweet to him. Even when he was sure he didn't deserve it. She caught him staring at her and raised her eyebrows, as if to ask him, _what?_ "I was just wondering," he said softly. "Just wondering how I convinced a girl like you to be interested in me."

"Easy," Emerson said with a grin as she started to wash under his armpits. "You just waited until the end of the world when I didn't have another choice." Her grin softened into a gentle smile, taking most of the bite out of her words. She leaned forward and pressed a kiss against his lips. "Lean forward," she whispered softly before she slid out from behind him so that she could start washing his legs. She was gentle around the bullet wound and quietly washed all the way down to his feet. "Umm," she said softly a few minutes later. "Technically I should wash your um, your um," she paused again, unable to get the words out.

Daryl grinned at her, "I can do that myself," he said with a chuckle. She nodded at him and gestured that she was going to go back to the fire to grab the second pot of warm water. She stayed with her back turned for a bit longer than necessary so that Daryl could wash under his underwear without her watching him. "Okay," Daryl said with a nod once he was done, once it was safe to turn around again. Emerson bit her lip, shyly turning around and Daryl chuckled when he saw the blush rising on her cheeks. "It ain't nothing you've never seen before," he pointed out.

"It's different," Emerson pointed out, remembering what Daryl had told her just a few mornings ago. That if they had sex it would be different. That before it had _been fuckin' and this wouldn't be_. She could tell by the look in Daryl's dark blue eyes that he understood what she was thinking about. "I'm sorry," she whispered, shaking her head, "I'm being silly." She walked forward with the pot of clean water and a new wash cloth. She didn't wring this wash cloth out as much as she had the other. She needed the clean water to be able to drip, to wash away the soap that was still left on Daryl's skin.

It took her ten minutes to quietly wash the rest of Daryl's skin. Once she was done she stepped away from him so that he could stand up and she would help him put his clothes back on. Daryl seemed to have different plans though. He stood up, but instead of putting on his clothes he limped closer to Emerson, he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her as close to him as he could so that he could press his lips against hers. Emerson gasped at the contact and a small moan escaped her lips as he slipped his tongue into her mouth. "Daryl," she whispered softly as she lifted her hands up and pressed them against his shoulders, using his body as leverage so that she could get closer to him. Daryl pulled his lips away from her mouth and placed kisses down the column of her neck, nipping and biting his way down to her collarbone. When he got there he lifted his hand so that he could tug at her shirt sleeve, pulling it down so that he could get more skin. She turned her head, her tongue slipped into his ear for just a split second before she bit down on his earlobe, "Bedroom," she whispered.

And that was all Daryl needed. For a moment he considered trying to pick her up. But he couldn't do that. He knew that with the bullet wound to his leg he wouldn't be able to hold her for long. And even if he could, he knew that she wouldn't allow him to, she would lecture him about how she had told him to take care of himself and that would kill the mood she was in now. That was the last thing that he wanted to do. He gently unwrapped his arms from around her waist and pulled away from her, nodding quietly toward the hallway that would bring them to their bedroom. Emerson smiled at him and nodded before she wrapped one of her arms around his waist and helped him hop toward the bedroom.

Daryl couldn't help but smile at the fact that when they made it into the bedroom she stopped and turned for just a moment so that she could shut and lock the door. She had locked the door into the dorm suite, he pointed out, no one was going to be able to get into their bedroom whether or not she locked the door or not. "Shut up," Emerson had muttered playfully, "it just makes it feel safer. What if Matty tried to pick the lock, I wouldn't want him to see what's about to happen."

"And what's about to happen?" Daryl asked, playfully biting at the redhead's earlobe. She moaned quietly, a shiver running up and down her spine.

"You know damn well what's about to happen," she growled at him before she rocked up onto her tiptoes and kissed his lips again while pulling her arms inside her shirt so that she could take it off and pull it over her head. Daryl placed his hands on the warm skin of her hip bones and chuckled as she reached down to unzip her pants, he was only wearing his underwear, she had to play catch up. She simply shook her head and pushed him backward towards the bed. Once he was laying on the bed she bent down to untie her shoes and took them off, her socks followed and then her pants. Daryl stared at her with wide blue eyes as she stood in front of him, completely unashamed, in her black bra and underwear. She caught his look and glanced down at her body; she still had her muscles from when she was in the Army, but she was smaller now than she used to be, her skin was stretched tight over her hipbones and ribs in a way it had never been before. She didn't look anorexic or too small, but she didn't have the curves she used to have. "I know," she said softly, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, "I know I'm not the most beautiful thing in the world, but -"

Daryl shook his head and a low growl escaped his lips as he reached out to grab her hand and pull her closer to the bed. "Shut up with that shit," he growled at her, lifting himself up enough to press a kiss to her lips. "You're beautiful." He had never felt the need to take it slow with someone before. Before all of this had happened Daryl had never wanted to be gentle with a woman. Sex had always been about gratification and getting done as quickly as he could, and kicking the girl out of his room before she could get too clingy. But this time, with Emerson, he wanted the exact opposite. He wanted to take it slow, to be gentle, and to show Emerson just how beautiful he thought she was - since he would never be able to put it into words the way he needed to. He gently took off her bra and pulled he underwear down so that she was standing completely naked in front of him. She grinned at him before she gently pulled down his underwear.

He was embarrassed to admit that his hand shook as he pulled Emerson onto the bed. He rolled them over so that he was leaning over her, his weight resting on his elbows so that he wouldn't crush the girl beneath him. Emerson shifted so that he was between her legs and moaned when Daryl lowered his head to her neck, kissing her again. He had plans to take everything slow, but Emerson shifted again and wrapped one of her legs around Daryl's waist so that she could bring his already hard erection against her core. She let it sit there for a second before she rocked her hips up and brought him into her. He groaned, dropping his head down to her chest and mouthing at her breast as he slowly pulled out of her just to push back in. "God damnit," he growled, rocking into her again just as slowly, "so tight, Em, so god damn tight." Emerson laughed at him quietly and moaned when Daryl continued his slow, gentle pace with her.

She placed her hands on his shoulders and pushed against him impatiently, "Come on Daryl," she muttered trying to get him to move faster. Daryl shook his head and muttered that he wanted to take things slow, make it special for her. She groaned and allowed her arms to flop down onto the mattress on either side of her head, "Daryl this is the first sex I've had in a while. And the very first time that I've wanted it since before I left for Afghanistan almost three years ago. I don't want gentle. You want to make it special? Fuck me. As hard as you can. Fuck me, Daryl."

Daryl stared at her for a moment, concerned, he didn't want to hurt her, but the small redhead gave him a gentle, prodding nod and he listened. She wanted him to fuck her as hard as he could and he would. As Daryl snapped his hips, pounding into her as quickly as he could Emerson moaned and tilted her head back. Daryl groaned at the expanse of pale skin that stretched out from her chest to her neck. He started just behind her ear, placing kisses and bites down the side of her neck, letting his tongue dip into the little hollow spot where her two collarbones met before he dipped his head further down the middle of her chest to the strip of creamy, smooth skin between her breasts. "Shit," Emerson cursed as he licked along the underside of her right breast. Her second leg wrapped around his waist as he lifted his mouth to her nipple, gently biting at it before moving to the other one.

Daryl growled as he felt everything in her tighten around him. "I ain't gonna last much longer," he growled as he kept up the brutal pace she had made him set. "You hear me."

"You think I am?" she asked him, panting harshly. "I'm already gone, honey." That simple admission was enough to throw Daryl over the edge. The fact that he had caused it, that it had happened so quickly, and the way she squeezed her legs around him and used her heels in the small of his back to push him deeper inside her. "That's it baby," she whispered when she felt him release into her, she squeezed herself around him, milking him through the orgasm. She couldn't help but smile when Daryl lifted himself off of her just enough to slide out of her before he laid back down, his head resting on her chest. "That was good," she panted as she raised one of her hands just enough to rest it on his head. "How's your leg feel?" she whispered to him, running her fingers through his sweaty hair. "Hershel will kill me if we ripped those stitches out."

Daryl chuckled and shook his head, he placed another kiss onto her breast before he tilted his head to look down at his bullet wound which was still covered in plastic wrap. "Nah," he said, shaking his head. "stitches are fine, Doc. Though I think your bedside manner could use some work. Last I checked nurses weren't supposed to sleep with their patients."

Emerson laughed at him and shook her head before she dropped a kiss onto the top of his head. "It's so quiet," she whispered, glancing behind her so that she could look out the window behind the bed. She glanced back at Daryl and smiled softly, "I lived in a small town and that used to seem quiet, but there was noise. And the desert in Afghanistan - I used to think that was quiet, especially at night. But this? It was nothing compared to this. There was some kind of noise - cars, trains, planes, someone listening to their music too loud. But now it's just quiet."

Daryl nodded, "People used to complain 'bout the world bein' too loud. Said people needed to slow down and listen. Now everyone just wants to hear a little noise." Emerson nodded quietly, thinking about what Daryl had just said. She opened her mouth, about to tell him that she would love to hear someone listening to rap too loud when they heard a noise from the next room over. It took them a while to recognize the noise, the rhythmic banging and the soft moaning. "Good Lord," Daryl muttered, lowering his face back onto Emerson's breasts.

Emerson giggled and rolled them over so that she was on her stomach and Daryl was cuddled around her back. "What were you saying about it being quiet?" she muttered over the noise coming from Maggie and Glenn's room.

-.-.-.-.-

"It's not enough formula," Emerson spoke up later that night as the group sat around the common room, staring into the fire. She was sitting on the couch next to Daryl, curled under his arm with her head resting on his chest. Matt was mimicking her stance, tucked under her own arm. She lifted her head just enough off of Daryl's chest so that she could press a kiss onto the top of Matt's head. "That's all there was in the store. And that will barely last a month. We'll have to go out again, make another run." Daryl made an angry noise in the back of his throat and Emerson placed a gentle hand on his knee, "Not me," she whispered softly, smiling when she felt him calm down under his touch. "I'll stay here. But someone will have to make another run."

"I will," Maggie said with a nod. "I'll take Ben again, he was useful. Maybe Carol?" she asked, glancing at the woman in question. Carol nodded, silently agreeing with Maggie she would go with them. "We passed a day car center on our way out of town," Maggie continued, glancing at Emerson. "Do you think there'd be formula there?" Emerson shrugged, there might have been if it hadn't been picked over already. "And maybe there might be some here on campus," Maggie added. "Like a staff daycare or something? Don't most schools have those?"

"Yeah," Emerson said with a nod. "There was one here. It's um," she paused, trying to remember. She had a friend who had gone to the school and had worked in the daycare. She had visited her at work once. "It's out that way," she gestured toward the back of the building. There was a small stretch of trees separating the dorm buildings from the campus buildings. "Near the faculty and guest housing." Daryl raised his eyebrows at that, wondering how much more housing there was on this campus. "It can't be more than a ten minute walk in that direction," Emerson continued with a shrug. "Though I don't know what we'll find when we get there."

"You don't think people left their kids there do you?" Carol asked, her tone horrified as she imagined a day care center full of young child and baby Walkers.

Emerson shrugged quietly, "I don't know," she said with a shrug. "I don't know what happened here. How long they tried to stay open. People could have thought it was the safest place for their kids. Or people may have gone to pick up their kids and decided to stay at the center. Or maybe parents dropped their kids off one morning, got infected, and never picked them up. There's no telling, really. I can only guess."

"We'll have to try," Rick said, glancing at Lori and thinking about the baby that was still growing inside her stomach. "All we can do is try."

Glenn shifted nervously in his seat, subtly pulling Maggie closer to him. "You think we can trust that Ben guy?" he asked, glancing around at the group, making eye contact with everyone.

Rick nodded, Lori shrugged, T-Dog nodded, Emerson quick nod and with a gentle poke to Daryl's side Daryl glared at her, but nodded as well. "We can," Maggie said with a nod. "As long as his sister stays here. Em gave him a gun, at one point he had one of her knives. Could have killed us easily. Didn't, just the Walkers. I think we can trust him. At least," she shrugged. "I trust him." Glenn nodded, he trusted Maggie and the fact that she trusted Ben meant more to him than anyone else's trust in the man. He nodded, he wasn't going to try to stop Maggie, Carol, and Ben from making another run. He couldn't deny it, the group would need it.

"I've been thinking," Hershel said quietly, "we should start looking for seeds. Spring will come eventually and we've got the car lot. We should plant. Grow some of our own food." T-Dog nodded, it was a good idea, but he had no idea where to start looking for the seeds. "I know," Hershel said with a quiet nod. "Just a suggestion."

"The agricultural department might have some," Emerson spoke up. "We'll have to find a campus map to figure out where that is. But they might have some. I know they did some planting up here. We should start looking."

Rick nodded, "Seems like we've got our work cut out for us over the next few days. We've got the infirmary to clear out, another run to make," he nodded to Maggie and Carol, "another day care to find, we should start looking for the agricultural department." He turned to look at Daryl, "As soon as Hershel and Em say you're ready to start walking again you should probably go hunting again. We need as much meat as we can get while the days are still long enough to go hunting safely." Daryl nodded. Rick turned to look at Emerson, then T-Dog, and Glenn, "If it's alright with you guys, what do you think about working more on the infirmary tomorrow?" They all nodded quietly, "Then we'll do it," Rick said with a nod as he reached out to grab Lori's hand, giving it a gentle, comforting squeeze.

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Author's Note:  
Well there it is guys! An early monday morning update from sunny Orlando, Florida!  
I really, really hope that you enjoyed it!  
You should **REVIEW** to let me know!  
I'm pretty happy with it at the moment.  
Now this is usually where I thank everyone for their support.  
And I am very grateful for it (don't think I'm not!) I honestly love reading everyone's reviews. And I enjoy responding to them!  
But it takes almost an hour to do that. So this week, while I'm on vacation I'm going to skip it.  
Please don't let that stop you from reviewing on this chapter. Because I will be back next week, responding to each and every review!  
I love you all and I hope that you have a great week!  
And even more that you enjoyed this chapter!  
Until next time, happy reading!  
Hugs and kisses,  
Chloe Jane.


	37. Chapter Thirty-Six

Disclaimer: I do not own the Walking Dead, although I'm completely obsessed with it and wished I did. Emerson, however, I do own.

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Oh no! Next week's episode is going to be crazy!  
I'm so excited!  
Who's with me?

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Enjoy loves.

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Chapter Thirty-Six:

"I don't like it," Daryl muttered the next morning as Emerson woke up and climbed out of their bed. Emerson nodded quietly as she started to get dressed. Goodbyes like this in the morning seemed to become a specialty of theirs. Daryl sat up in bed carefully, leaning back on his elbows, "Just don't get shot, huh?" he joked quietly.

"I won't," Emerson said with a laugh. "I ain't stupid like you," she added, leaning forward so that she could ruffle Daryl's hair playfully. She leaned across the bed and grabbed Daryl's hand, "I know you don't like it, Dare," she said softly, lifting their hands so that she could press a kiss onto the back of Daryl's, "but we can't just wait around for your leg to get better. Stuff has to happen. There's things that we need to get done. It's safe now, if we wait it'll be harder to do it later. You know that."

Daryl nodded, "I just don't like it," he muttered and for once he wasn't talking about Emerson going off without him, though he didn't like that either. He meant that he didn't like just sitting there, being useless while everyone else worked and fought for the group's survival. He didn't like just sitting. "I don't like it at all," he muttered.

"I know," Emerson whispered quietly and from the look on her face Daryl knew that she actually understood, that she knew what he really meant. "But if I know anything about Daryl Dixon I know that he's not going to let a little thing like a .9 mil keep him down for long. You'll be up and moving again in no time. I know it." She lifted her head enough to kiss his lips before she pulled away from him. "I'm going to go say goodbye to Matt. He and Carl, Lori, Beth, and Hershel are going to be here today. Maybe the girls from Ben's group. Everyone else is going to be at the infirmary. We're running all hands on deck today." She paused when she caught the worried look on Daryl's face. "It's all going to be fine," she whispered, giving his hand a tight squeeze before she let go of his hand. She rocked up enough to press another kiss onto his lips before she pulled away and left the room.

"Hey honey," she said when she caught Matt sitting up in his bed, petting Lou and waiting for her. "What are you doing awake so early?"

Matt shrugged, "I wanted to ask you if I could come with you," he admitted quietly. "I'm gonna be nine soon I think," he shrugged, he hadn't been keeping track of the days, but it had to be getting close to his ninth birthday. "I should be old enough to come with you. I can help kill the monsters. I killed that one in our cabin, remember? Remember, Emmy?"

Emerson smiled down at him and nodded, she did remember the Walker from the cabin. "I don't know honey," she whispered quietly. "I don't know if you can come with us today. There's going to be a lot of monsters and I can't worry about myself and you. You don't even know how to shoot a gun yet, buddy, not really. Let's wait until you know how to shoot, huh?" Matt nodded, he had expected that answer. He asked his sister when she was going to let him learn how to shoot a gun. Emerson grinned at him, "How about you talk to Daryl about that today, huh?" she asked softly. "I bet he would love to teach you how to shoot as soon as he can walk. How about that? You'd rather have Daryl teach you then you're mean sister, huh?"

"Yeah," Matt said with a nod. "That sounds like more fun. We could talk about man things."

"Man things?" Emerson asked with a giggle as she sat down on the bed and wrapped her arms around her brother and started to tickle his sides. "Man things? What are these man things? Is there a girl you have a crush on? Hmm? Someone you need advice about? I don't think you're old enough to know man things!"

"I am too old enough," Matt muttered, his face sullen. "And you know, man things. Dad and I used to talk about them all the time." Emerson felt her breath catch in her throat, this was the first time that Matt had talked about her parents since he found out that she had lied about them. "We'd talk about cars, and hunting, and movies where things blow up, and Jenny from class. You remember Jenny?"

Emerson nodded, dropping a kiss onto the top of her brother's head, "Yeah," she said, thinking about the little blonde girl that her brother had pointed out to her at a school concert. "I remember Jenny. She was pretty wasn't she?"

"Not as pretty as Mom," Matt pointed out quietly.

Emerson dropped another kiss onto her brother's head, "Well," she whispered into his hair, "no one is as pretty as Mom."

"And you," Matt pointed out quietly.

"Well thanks little man," Emerson said quietly. "That's real nice of you." She heard the floor creak outside the room. She turned her head, her cheek still resting on Matt's hair and she caught sight of Daryl leaning carefully against the doorframe. She turned her head again and pressed one more kiss onto the top of Matt's head. "Well look who's up and moving," she grinned before she nudged Matt, "Why don't you go see if Daryl will read to you. Or better yet," she paused glancing down at the boy, "why don't you read to him. You need to practice your reading anyway. Make your big sister proud. Then maybe you and Daryl can talk about some man things," she grinned up at the man in question. "Call Carl in here and play poker or something. Like you said, you are almost nine years old. And you don't know how to play poker? I've failed you!" Daryl and Matt laughed at her and Emerson sat for a moment, basking in the happiness of her two men before she stood up and left the room, pausing for just a moment to squeeze Daryl's hand before she left.

"Emmy!" Matt called after her, "Take Lou with you."

Emerson wanted to say no, but she knew that Lou had been in worse situations than this before and more than that the hopeful looks on Matt and Daryl's faces - obviously they would feel safer with the dog being there. She shook her head at her younger brother before she whistled to the dog, "Come on, Lou," she commanded softly, waiting for just a moment for the dog before she left the room.

"What's this?" one of the college boys called out loudly as Rick's group walked out of their dorm building into the bright sunlight to meet Ben and his group. The dog was thrilled to be out in the open and to have a chance to really run around. With all that had been going on recently the dog had only gotten short bathroom breaks outside, nothing like this which promised to be a good, long day outside.

"This is Lieutenant Dan," Emerson said with a smile as she walked closer to Ben and his group. She smiled tentatively at the college kids who were looking fearfully toward her group. Ben had met them all the day before when they got back from their run, but these kids hadn't. This was the first time they had seen the group that hand almost singlehandedly cleared the school of most of its Walkers. "Hi," she said with a gentle wave, trying not to startle any of them. "I'm Emerson, nice to meet you again. This is Rick, Glenn, Maggie, Carol, and T-Dog. There's others, their inside right now: Beth, Lori, Matt, Carl, Daryl, and Hershel. Are all of you coming with us to clear the infirmary?"

Ben shook his head, "Lindsey," he said nodding toward his sister, a pretty little brunette, "and Jamie are going to stay in your building if that's okay," he said, glancing at Rick. Rick nodded, seeing this for what it was - a promise that Ben and his boys were going to behave today and that they weren't going to do anything to harm Rick or any of Rick's people. "But Tristan here," he nodded at the taller of the two boys, "and Jared are going to come with us. They're not much good with guns, but they can handle themselves pretty well out there." He nodded toward the german shepherd which was now sitting impatiently by Emerson's side, "You ain't worried about Fido?" he asked her.

Emerson placed a gentle hand on top of the dog's head, gently stroking him behind his ear. "Lou can take care of himself, just fine," she said softly. "Don't you worry about that." Rick nodded, he was ready to get started on the infirmary. The last thing he wanted to do was spend half the day talking about their plan. And then not being able to actually clear out the building. Lori was getting closer and closer to when she was going to give birth and there might have been some things in the infirmary that could help. The last thing that Rick wanted was for Lori to go into labor and then to not have absolutely everything they needed.

He told the girls where to find the rest of the group before he turned back to the group that would be helping to clear out. "There were more Walkers in there then we thought," he explained softly. "So we're going to stick to pairs," he said, glancing at Emerson with a rye twist of his lips. Emerson smiled up at him before she leaned over slightly so that she could elbow Ben in the ribs. The marine smiled down at her, chuckling slightly before turning back to Rick. "There's an odd number so someone will technically be on their own," Rick pointed out. "Glenn and Maggie will be partners and I'd like each of the college boys to have an adult. Ben and Carol each raised their hands signaling that they would each take charge of one of the younger boys. Rick nodded, "That leaves me, T-Dog, and Em. We'll have to watch each other's backs." Emerson shook her head, swaying back and forth and jerking her chin toward Lou when Rick raised his eyebrows at her. "You're going to trust the dog?" Rick asked in surprise.

"Just watch what my baby can do," Emerson said with a soft smile as she knelt on the ground so that she could pet the dog. "I'm going to be the safest one in the building. "You'll see." Rick and T-Dog both shot her looks as though they thought that she was crazy and Emerson didn't miss the look they shot over her head that clearly said that they would both still be keeping an eye out for her. "Trust me," Emerson said with a nod. "I know this dog."

After that everyone was quiet, tense as they readied their weapons. Since Ben had said that Tristan and Jared were bad with guns and ammunition was low they were given a metal baseball bat and an axe. They were good weapons, Emerson had offered to give them each one of her knives, but they were no good at throwing them and Tristan had admitted that he would rather not have to get too close to the Walkers if he didn't have to. Everyone else besides Emerson had a gun, though most were carrying weapons besides the gun. Rick had instructed that everyone should treat the guns as the last possible option. "You're sure you're going to be okay?" Ben had asked as the group walked toward the infirmary.

Emerson grinned up at him, "What is with all the men in this world?" she had teased softly. "You saw me at the store in town. You think I can't handle it?" Ben shrugged and pointed out that there were a lot more Walkers in the infirmary and she was using a dog as a partner. Emerson's grin turned into a smirk, "Try to attack me," she told him softly. Ben raised his eyebrows in surprise. Emerson nodded, "Yeah," she said, "you heard me. Try to attack me. Watch what he does. You'll see." Ben shook his head at the redhead, she was crazy, but he did what she told him to do. He took an aggressive stance and moved toward her, his axe raised in the air. The dog was there in a second, growling his back arched and his ears flattened. It was obvious from the way he was swaying back and forth that he was getting ready to pounce. Emerson whistled softly, "Calm down Lou," she whispered and the dog instantly calmed down. Emerson grinned up at Ben, "Another second and he would have been at your throat. He can't attack their heads, but he can get them down on the ground so that I can. And he's fast, hasn't had a close call yet." She glanced down at the dog, pride shining in her eyes. Lou hadn't always been this protective of her. It would have been useful to have him protective like this when she was with Darren's group. But Matt had always been his favorite, it was only after they ran away that Lou had decided that he liked her too.

The group had made it to the infirmary by then. Emerson glanced up at the building, "Well this doesn't look so bad," she said, her tone almost playfully. Her group who was used to her playful attitude before something serious didn't even bat an eye at her attempt to lighten the mood - to force people not to be afraid. But Ben's group looked at her in surprise as if they would never understand her. Emerson glanced up at Maggie and shook her head, sticking her tongue out at the brunette before her face became serious.

"Alright," Rick said with a purposeful nod, glancing at the building in front of them. "Stick with your partners. And look out for everyone else if you get the chance," he added, glancing at Emerson with a concerned look on his face. He glanced at the two college boys, "Remember aim for the head, anything else won't kill it. Don't just hit them, drive your weapon into their heads, crush their skulls with your boots. Do whatever you can do to make sure they stop moving."

Everyone nodded at him and they split up. Ben, Jared, Emerson, Lou, Maggie, and Glenn went around the back of the building while Rick, T-Dog, Carol, and Tristan stayed at the front. They were going to attack from both sides, it seemed like a safer way to get everyone in the building and it might be faster than just a frontal attack. The good news was that the infirmary was only one story. There were exam rooms down one hallway and a large room where all the cots were kept and where the majority of the Walkers were.

"Three," Emerson started to count down once the six of them reached the back door. "Two," she continued, reaching into her belt so that she could grab one of her knives as she moved toward the doors. They were padlocked, but Rick had given them the keys. She quickly unlocked the padlock and pulled the chain free, flinching at the noise it made and hoping to God that the Walkers hadn't heard it. "One," she finished quietly before she swung one of the double doors open and gestured for Ben and Jared to go through first. The rest of the group followed quickly behind, she and Lou taking up the rear.

There were Walkers everywhere. Apparently the back doors opened up right into the room with the cots. The room that had one other entrance which was padlocked shut. The four people in Rick's group would clear the hallway and the examination room and then they would have to leave the building and come around back to get in and help the people in Emerson's group. For now, they were on their own. Lou growled, baring his teeth at the nearest Walker before he lunged forward and biting at the dead man's neck he brought it to the ground close enough to Emerson that she could thrust her knife into its skull and kill it. "Good boy," she whispered quietly as she pulled the knife out of the Walker's head and stood up straight again. "Let's keep going, huh?"

To her right Maggie and Glenn were working together to kill Walkers. Glenn would use his sharp axe to chop off the heads of the Walkers while Maggie would drive her metal pole through their eyes, finally killing them. Ben and Jared weren't as skilled and well practiced - they were in front of her, both holding axes. Jared couldn't embed the axe far enough in the Walkers' heads to kill them with the first blow and Ben's axe wasn't sharp enough to cut straight through the necks like Glenn's could do, but they were managing fairly well, all things considered.

She heard Lou growl before she felt the Walker behind her approaching. But before the dog could even jump on the woman dressed in a nurse's uniform Emerson had spun around and jammed her knife through the woman's filmy blue eye. She flinched as the blood sprayed across her face, she didn't like going through the eyes for a reason, too much blood. She turned back around just in time to lunge forward and stab another Walker through the back of her head. Jared who had been struggling with the Walker looked up at her with a thankful look in his eyes, "How did you do that?" he hissed quietly as he swung around to take down another Walker coming from his right. "You just jammed that thing through its skull."

"Just gotta know where to hit," she said quietly, watching Lou with tense eyes as the dog moved away from her to attack a Walker that was making its way toward the pair of humans at a fast pace. "And have enough force behind it. I'll teach you some day. It's better than an axe if you ask me." As if to prove it she pulled a second knife out of her belt and threw it at a Walker that the dog was having a problem with. The knife embedded itself to the hilt in between the eyes of the Walker just like she knew it would. Emerson smiled as the Walker fell down to the ground. She turned back to shrug softly at the college kid before she started to move away. "You can throw them."

-.-.-.-.-

"So your sister said something about poker," Daryl said as he hopped his way toward the common room. "You feel like it?" Matt smiled at him and nodded before he ran toward Rick's room to get Carl. Daryl shook his head and watched the boy run away, trying his hardest not to look out the window toward the infirmary. He was worried about Emerson and the last thing he needed to do was to look at the building and imagine what was happening in there. Emerson was tough and he was sure that she would make it out alive. He grinned when the two young boys approached him again, "Ready?" he asked quietly. Poker wasn't really something that he wanted to play at the moment, but when he looked at Matt he saw that the young boy was worried about his sister and Carl was worried about his dad. The only thing Daryl could think was what would Emerson do. Distract. That's what Emerson would do, she'd distract them. So that's what Daryl would do to. "If you get any good we'll even play for money," he promised with a forced grin.

Daryl and the boys sat down around the table in the common room and Daryl quickly ran through the rules of five card draw, he figured that it would be the easiest one for the boys to learn. Once he was done explaining what hands were the best ones to get they played a round where all their cards were played on the table, face up, so that Daryl could explain which cards the boys wouldn't want to keep and why. Then they played one other face up round, this time the boys told him why they wanted to play certain cards and get rid of others. After that, they played for real, they even bet some of the useless money that they had found when clearing the dorms. Carl and Matt were so excited about that, which made him chuckle - Matt was thrilled when he won a ten dollar bill from Daryl even though no one would ever get to spend that money again.

"Are you going to marry my sister?" Matt asked randomly during their fourth round of cards. Daryl glanced down at him with his eyebrows raised. Matt grinned up at him, the kid had the crappiest poker face Daryl had ever seen. "Are you going to marry her?" he asked, "One day? After you and she have been dating long enough?"

"I don't know," Daryl said with a shrug, he tried to remain calm. Inside though, he was freaking out. He had never been the kind that was going to get married. That had never been his plan. Before the Walkers he had made a point never to date the type of woman that would want to get married. Was Emerson that type? Would she want that? "Do you think that's what she'd want?" he asked the young boy quietly. "You think she'd want to marry me?"

Matt thought about it for a moment and then he shrugged, "I don't know why she wouldn't," he replied before turning to grin at Carl. "I'm going to beat you," he warned the older boy. "I've got really good cards."

"You're not supposed to tell people that you have good cards," Daryl scolded gently.

"I might marry Beth," Carl said with a shrug. "What do you think about that, Daryl? She's pretty."

"A bit older than you," Daryl pointed out as her purposefully discarded a good card so that one of the boys could beat him.

"That doesn't matter anymore," Matt said with a shrug. "Not in this world. You're older than Emmy aren't you?" Daryl nodded, he was a good fifteen years older than the redhead, he had no right to talk about age differences. Matt nodded, "See, that doesn't matter for you and her it won't matter for Carl or Beth either." He turned and nodded toward Carl as if that settled the matter before he dumped all of his money in the table and then put all his cards down on the table to show his hand.

Daryl sighed, "You're not supposed to show your cars until everyone is done betting," he told the younger boy before he dropped his cards on the table and split the money between the two younger boys so that they could play another round.

-.-.-.-.-

Rick and the group was back at the dorm building by lunch time. Daryl and the boys looked up when Rick and Ben led the way into the common room. Carol followed, helping a limping college boy into the building. Then Maggie, Glenn, and T-Dog. The brunette from Ben's group stood up and rushed toward the limping boy, "Tristan! Are you okay?" she asked, her tone tense and worried.

But Daryl didn't care about the boy, all he was concerned about was the redhead that wasn't part of the group. "Where's Emerson?" he asked, glancing around and wondering if maybe she had been hiding behind someone. He didn't believe that the group would have been so calm if something had happened to her, but at the same time he didn't like not knowing for himself if she was okay.

"She's outside," the limping boy, Tristan, told him as Carol and the blonde helped him sit down on the couch. "She's teaching Jared how to handle her knives. He wanted to learn and she offered to teach him before she came in for lunch." Daryl nodded and told the younger boys he would be right back before he got off the couch and began to hop toward the doors. It took him a while to get down to the first floor, the stairs had been difficult for him not that he'd really want to admit that. But he got down there and made it outside into the bright Georgia sunlight.

"There you go," he heard Emerson cheer softly on the side of the building. He worked his way around the building to find Emerson and the young college boy sparring with knives. Emerson was faster than the boy, Jared. She was faster and more sure of herself, but the kid was holding his own pretty well. "Come on," Emerson prodded, "hold it like you mean it. You're not going to hurt a fly if you're acting like you're afraid of it. Come on now!"

"But I am afraid!" Jared pointed out. "What if I hurt you? Where did you learn this?"

"She didn't tell you?" Daryl asked as he approached the two. Emerson turned around and grinned at him as she reached out and wrapped her arm around his waist, pulling him closer to her side. "She came out of her mama with a set of throwing knives in her hands," Daryl continued as he wrapped his own arm around the small redhead's shoulders. "She's a badass like that."

Emerson laughed and shook her head as she placed her knife in her belt and reached for the one Jared had been using. "Now that's not even remotely true," she said, gently poking Daryl in the side. "But I did learn at a pretty young age. My Daddy liked to go hunting, but he didn't like using guns. I was too young to use a crossbow so I got hunting knives." She turned toward Daryl and stood on her tiptoes so that she could press a kiss onto his jawline. "Let's go in and have lunch," she said, turning to smile at the college boy. "We'll practice more tomorrow, huh?"

The boy nodded and turned away, walking quickly into the dorm building to go check on the girls from his group and get some lunch. Emerson and Daryl walked a little slower, Daryl muttered about Emerson's hand on his waist, but she never let go of him, he was silently thankful for that. "Matt wanted to know if I was going to marry you one day," he told her quietly as they made their way up the steps toward the front door. He wasn't sure why he brought it up - partly to give her a warning just in care Matt asked Emerson the same question, and partly because he wanted to know if she was the type of girl that expected him to marry her.

Emerson started laughed and shook her head as she helped the man beside her climb the stairs. "I bet he's been wondering that for a while," she chuckled. "He's too young to realize that most of the conventions from the old world are gone now. Things like marriage, divorce, jobs - they're all gone now. He just doesn't know it yet."

"So you wouldn't want that?" Daryl asked quietly.

Emerson smiled and shook her head, "I don't see the point," she said with a shrug. "I never really saw the point of a marriage. I guess it was just to show everyone else, proclaim people's love for each other. But in this world, everyone I know is part of this group. And it's not like it's a secret, everyone knows."

"Everyone knows what?" Daryl asked, raising his eyebrows at the small girl.

Emerson shrugged again, a grin resting on her lips, "That you belong to me."

* * *

Author's Note:  
So you guys are pretty amazing! That's all I have to say about the past two chapters.  
Other than the fact that I'm so glad you guys enjoyed the smut... I was very worried about that. But no more to say.  
Except that I hope you enjoyed this chapter! I'm setting up for some very big things! What? Are you excited? I am.  
Special thanks to: _chloebeth76, Franne, crimsoncloverrr, kylielyn, thesounds82, Caseykill, cullenforevah, kelizabeth13, mmiller1983, rorolovesvamps, animafreak14, ThyPanda, kisitechie, lucylu0508, Taraaa B, Tellebell _and _czmgrace_ for adding this story to their Favorites List. And to: _books. , Binary 9, middlekertz, Franne, Kelli83, Valanara, kylielyn, mmiller1983, xasuim, DietCherryVanillaDrPepper, Okurah, animafreak14, JCLProductions88, Mick21209, ThyPanda, kisitechie, jouetdedestin, Dominic19832002, czmgrace, AshleyArnetta _and_ loving vamps _for adding this story to their Alerts List!  
But as always, the **BIGGEST** of **SPECIAL THANKS** belongs to those of you that **REVIEWED** on the last chapter:  
**piratejessieswaby: **I'm glad you loved it! I hope that you like this chapter as well!  
**WinterIsComing01: **You did get Monday morning sex. The way I see it, it's the best way to start a Monday morning. I'm glad that you enjoyed the last chapter and I hope that you liked this one as well!  
**Franne: **As always I am so happy that you are addicted to this story! It'd be sad if I had written all of this and no one liked it. (That was my biggest fear when I was like ... oh hey! Let's make an OC for Daryl). I hope that you liked this chapter as well. :D  
**Dalonega Noquisi: **YES! (I'm glad you were happy!)  
**DBugMom: **I've kind of wondered about the child Walkers too, but they kind of answer that question on the show. Like babies, toddlers, kids in elementary school even wouldn't be able to defend themselves against a zombie, and the chances of them getting bit and then somehow getting away are very slim. They'd get torn apart and there'd be nothing left. And babies? Have you noticed that every time they show a child's car seat in the show there's like blood stains on the back of it at head level? Like the parents killed the baby before Walkers could get to it? It's kind of depressing, but very realistic. (At least, I think. I don't have any kids, but I do have a goddaughter and I know that if I was in charge of her I would keep her safe as long as I could, and when it seemed like I couldn't anymore? Well, I don't really like thinking about that.)  
And this has been a really depressing response to a review. I'm sorry about that.  
**VealMaster: **I'm so glad you liked the way Emerson reacted to Daryl's scars! We've seen from the show that he's pretty uncomfortable about them and that he's never going to just be okay with them being on display. But I wanted Emerson to show him that the scars didn't define him, they didn't make him less than anyone else. That he is still worthy of being loved even with the scars. I'm glad that you enjoyed the smut, I was scared, but now I'm glad I took the risk!  
**middlekertz: **YAY! I'm glad you enjoyed it!  
**HChrisH: **Yes the paper wall! When I wrote that part I was laughing because I was remembering your review as well as my days in the college dorm. Very fun memories. I'm glad you enjoyed the last chapter and I hope you liked this one as well.  
**mylittlegameofwalkingdead: **You were having fun with the last chapter weren't you? I'm glad you enjoyed it!  
**FanFicGirl10: **I know! It only took me thirty-five chapters to get them to that point. And I'm truly happy that they've finally gotten to this point. They'll be getting a small break, but not for long... BIG PLANS coming.  
**missy7293: **Haha! I'm not even a big smoker and I kind of wanted one after I wrote that chapter. I'm glad that you're enjoying the story and I hope that you liked this chapter too!  
**Gaby de Brabant: **I'll lose the shame by writing more smut, hmm? Sounds like a hint that I should write more - practice makes perfect, right? I'm glad that you enjoyed the last chapter and I hope that you enjoyed this one as well!  
**Auburn and Green: **Everyone seems to feel the same way! Apparently I made you guys wait too long for the sex! I'm sorry, but it took me a while to feel ready and I didn't want their relationship to be all about sex. I've read stories like that and they can't last long. This story's in it for the long haul and if they had sex when they first met, it wouldn't have worked. I'm glad that you liked the last chapter and I hope that you like this one too!  
**Readergirl66: **Thank you! I did enjoy my vacation! And I'm glad that you enjoyed this chapter as much as you enjoyed the last one!  
**kisitechie: **Oh I'm sorry that you ran out of story! But I am so glad that I kept you interested for an entire day! That's really good news! And I'm really happy that you like Emerson. I still get surprised when people like her because a lot of people aren't super excited about OCs. (I can't blame them; they have a relationship with the ones on the show, they love them, etc. And then you bring a new character in and you have to make them love your new character. Which is hard.) So I get really happy when people say they love Emerson!  
**AJ: **This fanfiction is ruining your life? Oh no! I'm sorry! I didn't want it to ruin anyone's life! I just wanted them to enjoy it! But on the other hand I am very excited that you've been enjoying this story and reading it continuously! That makes me really happy! I hope that you enjoyed this chapter too!  
**bookelf: **Great to be back, dear. :D And you sure know how to flatter me! I'm so glad that you're enjoying my version of Daryl. I'm trying to make him as believable as possible, while allowing him to grow and change the longer he is involved with Emerson. And I get really excited and flail around when people say that I'm doing that! So thank you! I'm really happy you're enjoying this story and I hope that you liked this chapter as well!  
**czmgrace: **NEW REVIEWER! What? I love you guys! Okay, I'll try not to be as excited. You know how to flatter a writer too don't you? I'm so glad that you found my story (how'd you find it) and that you think it is "some of the most entertaining fan fiction you've ever read" had to quote you on that one because like you ran around your apartment like a fool after each romantic moment, I flailed and squealed when I read your review! Thank you so much for your review! And I hope that you enjoyed this chapter as much as the rest of the story, I had some fun with it toward the end. Emerson got a bit sassy. :D  
**goodnightlove: **Oh you must have had a field day when you got back to fanfiction. Two chapters and a **new story**? I must really like you guys! I don't spoil everybody like this.  
And I'm glad you liked the M rated part (even if it made you feel a bit like a pervert) I was really worried about posting it. But apparently I have to be a bit more confident in my writing ability!  
I did enjoy my vacation! But I'm back now, and here is your weekly dose of Emeryl!  
And that's all I've got for now! Thank you guys so much for your support of this story! I love it and you!  
Until next time, happy reading!  
Hugs and kisses,  
Chloe Jane.


	38. Chapter Thirty-Seven

Disclaimer: I do not own the Walking Dead, although I'm completely obsessed with it and wished I did. Emerson, however, I do own.

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So Milton this week ... was amazing.  
I think I have a new baby. The Governor better not kill him.  
Or I will fuck some shit up. I will become the Hulk!  
Seriously I will.

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Anyway, this was supposed to come out yesterday.  
But I had to go to class. And then I had a work emergency.  
But then because I went in for the work emergency I was going to get to leave early.  
And then I had a life emergency in the form of really bad period cramps (TMI? Sorry)  
That left me cuddled under ten heating pads on my bathroom floor and crying myself into a three hour nap.  
So it had to wait until today.

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Speaking of today? Anybody hooked on March Madness?  
I am. My money's on Louisville.  
(And that might only be partially because I know one of the players.)

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This chapter's a bit fluffy, but shit's going to go down soon.  
Because that's how I do things.

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Anyway, there is one more thing that you'll notice in the author's not at the end.  
I'm trying to create a new trend: #SecretsOfTheTimeline. (explanation in AN)  
If you have any guesses as to what I have planned for you guys.  
Just pop over to my tumblr and send me an ask (anon or not) with #SecretsOfTheTimeline.  
I may tell you whether you're right or not ... or give you a hint.  
For those of you that don't know my tumblr ... it's: **misschloejane.**

Enjoy loves.

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* * *

Chapter Thirty-Seven:

"There have been more Walkers at night than normal," T-Dog mentioned one morning about three weeks later. Emerson looked up in surprise, she was making eggs for everyone once they woke up - they were powdered and as far as she was concerned they tasted like shit, but they were the only kind they had. Emerson had held out hope about the agriculture department, but she wasn't sure now. It had been almost two years since all of this started. They hadn't even made it to the barns yet, what were the chances that any of the animals were still alive? They'd all probably starved to death or been eaten by Walkers. T-Dog nodded at her, they were the only ones awake at the moment besides Rick who was up on the roof keeping watch. "Yeah, I saw about eight of them last night. They went behind the building, I lost track of them, but they were gone by the time Rick came up to take over."

"Eight?" Emerson hissed in surprise. "Did you tell Rick?" T-Dog nodded quietly. "Fuck," she cursed, turning away from the oven and pressed her hand against her mouth. "That's the most we've seen since we cleared the quad. What do you think they're coming here for? Where are they coming from?"

T-Dog shrugged, "It's getting colder?" he questioned. Emerson shrugged in return, she had no idea what made the Walkers decide to move places. "Maybe they're moving in from the woods, looking for something warmer. Maybe they've heard us or smelled us. We haven't been as careful as we could be here. Could've been quieter, not spent as much time out in the open. The good news is that they weren't paying any particular attention to the building. Just wandering."

"Yeah," Emerson said with a nod, "that is good news."

"You look worried," T-Dog said softly as he moved around her to stir at the eggs so that they wouldn't burn. Emerson raised her eyebrows at him as if to ask him why would she be worried? He grinned at her and shook his head, "You looked worried before I brought up the Walkers," he pointed out. "What's on your mind?" Emerson shook her head, she wasn't sure if this was even her secret to discuss. "Is it Lori?" he asked. Emerson shot him a look, silently asking him how he had known that. "You watch her," he said with a shrug. "You watch her really carefully, any time you're in the same room as her. It's hard not to notice it. Did you find everything you needed in the infirmary?"

Emerson shook her head, gently pushing T-Dog out of the way so that she could take care of the eggs again. "A few minor pain killers," she said softly, glancing behind her to make sure that no one else had entered the common room. "Nothing strong enough to really help Lori that much when she goes into labor. Vaccines - we'll be fine if someone starts getting the flu or tetanus. Lots of condoms and birth control which would have been useful before she got pregnant." T-Dog chuckled at her and Emerson shook her head ruefully. "But like I said before - "

"Nothing that'll help Lori," T-Dog repeated with a nod.

"The one bit of good news is that the examination rooms were left pretty much alone after they quarantined all the students with fevers. Which means that when she does go into labor there will be a sterile place for her to give birth. That's about the only good thing I can say though."

T-Dog nodded, now fully understanding why Emerson had looked so worried over the last few days. "But it's going to be okay, right?" he asked. "Women give birth without pain killers all the time right? Years ago, at least. And you're a doctor? You'll be able to do it?"

"Yeah, T," Emerson sighed quietly, his questions were hitting a bit too close to home for her, "everything's going to be fine. I'm going to do my best and that baby is going to make it out alive. You'll see." She felt more than she saw T-Dog's head snap up in surprise at her words. She hadn't told him that Lori was going to be okay, she had only said that the baby was going to be fine. He started to ask her about Lori, but Emerson looked over his shoulder and forced a smile onto her face, "Morning Carl!" she said, her voice falsely cheerful. "How'd you sleep last night, honey?"

"Good," Carl said looking at Emerson as though he thought she had lost her mind. "How about you? Is Matt awake yet?"

"He should be," Emerson said with a nod and a grin, "why don't you go wake him and everybody else up? I bet everybody's hungry for breakfast." Carl nodded and left the room to go wake everyone else up and Emerson lifted the pan of powdered eggs off of the stove so that she could split it between everyone's plates. T-Dog reached out to grab her arm as she walked around him, but she shook her head. "Please T," she begged him. " Leave it alone for now. I don't want to talk about it."

"But you should," he pointed out.

"Probably," the redhead said with a shrug. "But not this morning, not now." She glanced over his shoulder again and when he saw her force another grin on her face he knew that other people had entered the common room and that he had lost her, that she was done talking to him. "Good morning," Emerson grinned as Maggie and Glenn walked into the room. "You guys sleep well last night? Or at all?"

Glenn chuckled at her and at least had the grace to look embarrassed as he reached up to scratch the back of his head. "Sorry about that," he whispered before he elbowed Maggie in the side when the brunette did nothing but wink at their friend.

"Yeah," Emerson said with a chuckle, her tone seemed less forced now, it was easier for her to pretend to be happy when she was making fun of these two. "I'll bet you're sorry. At least you will be when you're up all day running on absolutely no sleep. And I get cranky when I haven't had much sleep so if I don't get a nap in today guess who I'll be blaming," She stuck her tongue out at the couple before she handed them each a plate and nodded toward the table.

Daryl came in next, Emerson couldn't hide the smile on her face when she realized that the man wasn't even limping anymore. "How are you doing this morning?" she asked him, her smile turning into a grin. She and Hershel had decided that the stitches would come out that day. Daryl had been waiting for this for weeks, for a chance to feel useful again and his stitches were finally coming out. He grinned at her and took the plate she offered him, his fingers brushed against hers for a beat too long to be casual and then he moved toward the table. "Yeah," Emerson said with a giggle and a nod, "I thought so."

Soon the rest of the group came in but Matt, Carl, and Lori were still missing. Emerson was in the middle of calling for Matt when he and Carl came down the hallway and Carl whispered to her that his mother needed her. Emerson nodded quietly and told them to go eat their breakfast before she told Hershel that she probably wasn't going to be around to help take Daryl's stitches out, not that she thought that he needed help she just didn't want him to look for her. And then she walked as calmly as she could down to Lori's room, the last thing she wanted was for anyone to start worrying and panic. Lori was waiting for her on the couch when she walked into the room. "I think it's time," the brunette said softly. "I'm having contractions."

"Has your water broken?" Emerson asked as she quickly grabbed her medical bag which had been sitting on the floor in the Grimes' dorm room for the last week so that it would be ready. Lori shook her head as the redhead grabbed her stethoscope and moved closer to her so that she could listen to the baby's heart rate, "Heart beat's strong," she said aloud, more to herself than to Lori. "Not as strong as I would like it, but considering the circumstances it's good. How far apart are the contractions?" she asked.

Lori shook her head, she didn't really have a way to measure the length of time between the contractions. "I don't know. A while, they're no where near on top of each other yet." Emerson nodded before she signaled that Lori should take off her pants so that she could check to see if she was dilated yet, she had heard of that before, of women having contractions and being dilated before their water broke. She was really hoping that she wouldn't have to manually break the older woman's water. "Do you think they're Braxton-Hicks?" Lori asked as she pulled her pants off and leaned back on the couch with her knees bent.

"They could be," Emerson said as she put gloves on and inspected the older woman. "You're not dilated yet," she said as she pulled away, turning around so that she could give Lori as much privacy as was possible. "Though we are getting close to when you should be going into labor. There's nothing else I can really do. We'll just have to monitor and hope that your water breaks and tells us that it's time." She turned back to the brunette and pointed at her, "No moving! Stay on the couch. I'll go get you breakfast and I'll tell people to just kind of steer clear today."

"I am capable of helping out," Lori pointed out, an irritated tone tinting her voice. "I never went on bed rest for Carl."

"That's true," Emerson said with a nod. "But you weren't underweight and malnourished. And you had a hospital full of skilled doctors and nurses to get you though your c-section. Now you've got me, who has only performed one of these once and that was in a medical facility. I'm holding out hope that there is a chance if you don't over stress yourself that we'll be able to have a normal birth. I'd really rather not have to give you a c-section unless that is my last option. So like I said. No moving. I'll be back." She quickly left the room and returned a minute or so later with two walkie-talkies and a large plate of eggs.

"This is a lot of eggs," Lori pointed out quietly as Emerson placed the plate on her lap and handed her a fork. "More than one serving," she pointed out when Emerson didn't respond.

"I gave you mine. Don't worry about our supply levels," Emerson said with a wave of her hand. "I wasn't really that hungry this morning. Being tired and stressed will do that to a girl. Besides, you need it more than I do." She then handed Lori one of the walkie-talkies, "I've got the other one, obviously," she said, pointing to the remaining walkie that was strapped to the waistband of her pants. "I'll come check on you every hour or so. But if you need me sooner than that just let me know. I'll be there." She reached into her back pocket and pulled out the pocket watch Hershel had given Glenn, "Keep track of your contractions. Okay?" Then she dipped down so that she could press a kiss against Lori's forehead and she left the room.

"Everything okay?" Daryl asked as Emerson walked out of the room and shut the door behind her. Emerson nodded silently, she had already messed up by talking to T-Dog about her worries, even if she really didn't tell him all that much. As far as she was concerned the less people that knew that she was worried about Lori's labor the better. Daryl raised his eyebrows at her, he didn't believe her," Okay," he said, deciding not to push it, "Rick wants to have a meeting. Everyone up on the roof. So yeah, let's go?" Emerson nodded and she followed him toward the stairs that would lead to the roof. She couldn't stop the smile that spread across her lips when Daryl reached back and grabbed her hand.

She and Daryl were the last to join the group on the roof. Rick looked at her questioningly when he realized that Lori hadn't come up with them. She gave him what she hoped was a comforting nod and smile. Rick nodded back as the group made room for Daryl and Emerson so that they weren't standing on the stairs. Once she was actually on the roof she didn't have to wonder what Rick had called the meeting about. She could see them. Twenty or so Walkers in the trees just beyond the dorm building. "Shit," she heard T-Dog mutter.

"Your Walkers came back," Rick agreed. "And they brought friends."

"What are we going to do with them?" Carol asked softly as she walked to the railing so that she could lean over it and get a better view of the Walkers. "We can't just let them wander around here like that?"

"And Ben," Maggie spoke up. "Ben, Lindsey, Jared, Tristan, Jamie - none of them know about the Walkers. We have to warn them."

"Already did," Rick said, gesturing toward the walkie he had clipped to his belt. Ben's group was still living in their own dorm building, but they came over occasionally and had dinner with Rick's group. And Rick had given them a walkie so that they would be able to communicate. "I told them that for now they should stay inside. They've got enough food that they should be set for a few days at least. The Walkers don't seem to be paying much attention to us. I'm making a rule, for now we're just to stay inside. They'll make their way back toward the woods soon." He looked around the group, daring any of them to argue with his new rule.

"We need to make another run" Emerson said softly, and raising her hand so that she could be seen from behind Daryl, the man had stepped subtly in front of her as if he could keep her from volunteering to make the run by just standing in front of her.

"That's not an immediate need," Rick said, shaking his head. Emerson raised her eyebrows though with her hidden behind Daryl no one noticed. Rick was still convinced that the four containers of baby formula that she and Maggie had brought back would be enough. He was sure that Lori was going to make it through the labor and that it was just going to take a little while before she would be able to produce her own milk for the baby. As far as Emerson was concerned the man was delusional, but Lori didn't want him to know that she didn't plan on surviving the labor, she didn't think he would be able to handle it. So Emerson couldn't tell him. She wasn't going to break Lori's trust by talking to Rick about this. When she didn't say anything Rick nodded, "So for now we'll be staying inside until I decide what to do with these Walkers." He nodded again, "Go back downstairs," he nodded toward the group, "I'm sure that everyone could use a day off today anyway."

"You've got that right," Glenn agreed, thinking about all the buildings the group had cleared recently. They had cleared and boarded up all the buildings on the quad, almost half of the lecture halls and were working toward the faculty and staff housing as well as the daycare center. The plan had been to take care of those buildings today, but the Walkers it seemed had different plans for them. The group laughed and Glenn wrapped his arm around Maggie's shoulders as the couple headed back toward the stairs. "It looks like you'll be able to get that nap after all, Em," Glenn said with a grin. Emerson nodded and warned the Korean boy that he and his girlfriend better not have sex that afternoon and ruin what she hoped would be a very good afternoon nap. "Em!" Glenn whispered playfully, "Shh, her father can hear you."

"Yeah?" Emerson asked, raising her eyebrows. "Well that's what happens. You ruin my sleep and I tell your father who you're sleeping with. Though I'm pretty sure he knows by now. You guys aren't the quietest bunch."

"Like you're one to talk," Carol laughed, elbowing Emerson in the ribs. "I've never heard you curse as much as you do when you and Daryl go off together."

Emerson shot Carol a playfully angry look before she glanced at Matt. She had never given him the sex talk and she knew that her parents never had. She wasn't sure how much he knew about sex. "I just really don't like losing," she said, slowly.

"I didn't know there were losers in the game you two were playing," Carol teased.

Emerson couldn't stop the giggle that escaped her lips at that statement. "Didn't you know?" she asked, shaking her head as she wrapped an arm around the older woman's shoulders. "There's always a loser in checkers. You can't tie in that game."

"Checkers?" T-Dog asked with a laugh. "That's what you guys are playing now?"

"Sometimes poker," Daryl said with a wicked grin on his face.

"Strip poker," T-Dog muttered under his breath before he turned to grin at Matt.

-.-.-.-.-

It was early evening and Emerson was reading to Carl and Matt, they had finished the Harry Potter book and had moved on to the Hobbit, when Lori's voice crackled over the walkie that was still attached to Emerson's hip. "Em? Can you come here for a moment? I need you." Emerson glanced up at Rick who was sitting on the couch across from her, he met her gaze with concerned eyes and she nodded before they both got up to leave the room.

"Hey Carl," Emerson suggested as she handed the older boy the book. "Why don't you read to Matt okay. I'll be back in a little bit." Then she and Rick quickly left the common room.

"Do you think it's time?" Rick asked, his voice tense.

"Might be," Emerson said softly. "She was having contractions earlier," the redhead admitted as they approached the dorm door. "But her water hadn't broken yet, so we weren't sure. They could have been Braxton-Hicks." They walked into the room and she forced a smile onto her face, "What's up Lori?" she asked, trying to sound cheerful.

"My water broke, and my contractions are about ten to fifteen minutes apart." Lori said, glancing between Emerson and Rick. "It's time."

"Okay," Emerson said with a nod before turning to Rick, "I need you to go get Maggie. We need to head over to the infirmary."

"No," Rick said, shaking his head. "I told you until we've figured out what to do with the Walkers everyone stays inside. She can give birth here."

"No," Emerson said as she knelt down to help Lori stand up. "She's not giving birth here. There's better equipment over there, scalpels instead of knives, a sterile place to give birth to your baby." Rick shook his head, but Emerson cut him off before he could speak, "Do you know what a woman giving birth without any form of pain killer or real medical equipment sounds like?" she asked him. What she was really thinking about was what a woman having a c-section would sound like without pain medication. "She'll scream and it'll draw every Walker out there right to this dorm building. I am not going to do that to the group. You lecture me about endangering the group? Then don't do this. Let me and Maggie take her to the infirmary. We'll be safer there. The group will be safer with us there too."

Rick still looked as though he was going to argue with her but Lori stood up, "Rick," she said, her hands dropping to her belly, "I'm going to the infirmary." He nodded slowly, as if Lori's decision was the be all, end all. He opened his mouth to say that he was going to go with them, Emerson knew the man well enough to know that, and so did Lori. "No," she said shaking her head slightly and lifting her hand to rest her fingers against his cheek. "You need to stay here with the group. Keep them all from panicking. You can't come."

"And I can't let the three of you go alone without anyone to help you. Take Glenn, or Daryl." Emerson shook her head. Rick sighed, not understanding why the two women were fighting him at every turn. "Or Ben," Rick suggested.

Emerson sighed, "Fine," she agreed, she realized that Rick wasn't going to give up until they agreed to take someone else. "Radio Ben." He made the most sense, of everyone Rick had suggested he was the only one who wasn't attached to Lori, who wouldn't possibly freak out if she and Maggie had to kill the older woman. "I'll get Maggie and someone to close the door behind us." She glanced between Rick and Lori, things had been tense between them since they had come to the school, Emerson didn't need to know them from before to notice that. But they had been working on it. "I'll be back," she said with a pointed look at Lori, almost pleading the woman to explain what was going on to Rick, to say goodbye at the very least. And then she left.

"Lori's going into labor," Daryl said, his voice flat when Emerson walked back into the common room. Emerson nodded and assured Daryl that everything was going to be fine. "Are you going to the infirmary?" Daryl whispered, glancing over Emerson's shoulder to make sure that Carl couldn't hear their discussion. "I'll come with you."

"No," Emerson said, shaking her head slightly. "No. Rick's staying here and he's going to need you. Maggie and I are going. And we're taking Ben. Rick's telling him to meet us outside now. He'll need you here though. Please stay."

"You'll need me," Daryl pointed out quietly.

"Probably," Emerson said with a nod. "But at least this way I'll know exactly where to find you." Then she pressed a kiss to his lips and signaled to Maggie that it was time to go. She hadn't told Maggie all the particulars on what was going to happen, but she had mentioned to the girl that she was going to need her help when Lori went into labor. The brunette nodded and stood up, she had been ready for this. Emerson glanced up at Daryl, "Lock the door behind us?" she asked him quietly. He nodded and she smiled up at him before the three of them walked out of the common room so that they could get Lori.

From the look on Rick's face Lori hadn't told him anything. The man looked too hopeful. Emerson's heart clenched painfully in her chest when she thought about what it was going to do to this man when he realized that his wife had died during childbirth. She shook her head, she didn't know that for sure, Lori might be able to go through a normal labor. She might come out of this okay. Maggie and Emerson both silently wrapped an arm around Lori's waist and began to help her out of the room. Daryl and Rick followed them down to the first floor and the three quietly crept out the front door. According to Carol up on the roof the Walkers were still behind the building, they weren't near the front. With any luck the women and Ben might be half way to the health center before any of the Walkers caught onto their scent. The marine was waiting for them on the front steps. He sent a grim smile toward everyone before he stepped forward and scooped Lori into his arms. "It'll be easier to move if you guys aren't pulling her along with you," he explained quietly to Emerson and Maggie. They nodded he was right, Emerson pulled two of her knives out of her belt just in case of an attack, Ben was right, she felt safer knowing that she would be able to defend them if something went wrong. Maggie raised her eyebrows at Emerson in question before she reached forward and grabbed two knives as well. She couldn't throw the knives like Emerson could, but she was pretty good with stabbing Walkers with them.

"Keep the walkie on," Rick warned quietly. "We'll use it to tell you what's happening with the Walkers. You'll use it to communicate what's going on on your end. We need to be as safe as possible."

Ben nodded, "My kids are still in our building," he said, gesturing toward the building in question. "But they have the radio. So they'll be able to hear what's going on." Rick nodded before he told everyone to be safe and that hopefully they'd all be back soon. "Don't worry," Ben said, sending a mock salute at the two men standing inside the dorm building, "I'll keep your women safe." Rick looked reassured by that.

"Let's go," Emerson muttered quietly, she wanted to start walking to the infirmary before the Walkers caught onto their scent or before anyone else could make a promise that they couldn't keep.

* * *

Author's Note:  
Ah! What am I doing to you? I give you fluff and then I take it away!  
The next chapter is going to be no fun at all ... or a lot of depending on how you feel about sad things.  
Anyway, just so you know ... I have worked out a time line for this story. And it looks like there's going to be about ten chapters left.  
***Around =** no less than ten, a definite chance of more than ten. So don't worry, this story isn't completely done yet.  
And I've got a lot in store for you guys. Though I think you're going to hate me when we're done with it. I don't know though.  
Anyway, thank you for stopping by and reading.  
Special thanks goes to:_Annonymous-Ace, Cali978, Paper Grenade, RedAlyk, Rowan04, Sefira123, Zodiacgirl14, alliebug1988, bevin79, ilovepiealot, _and _kc4612 _who added this story to their Favorite's List.  
And to: _0TigerFang0, callalily8, calendar, NotTheDevil, PadfootCc, Paper Grenade, RedAlyk, Sefira123, Zodiacgirl14, bevin79, hazeleyedcurly, hideher, ilovepiealot, krys247, _and_ mrc1979 _who added this story to their Alerts List.  
But as always the **BIGGEST**of special thanks goes to those of you that **REVIEWED** on the last chapter:  
**piratejessieswaby:** I love that about them too. I hope you liked this chapter too dear, though there wasn't much cuteness in it!  
**WinterIsComing01: **Oh no! No, no, no! I've never seen I Am Legend because of what they do to the dog. Don't worry, nothing is going to happen to Lieutenant Dan. It's in my timeline. He makes it until the end. #SecretsOfTheTimeline  
**FanFicGirl10: **I figured that the boys needed some bonding time. And them playing poker for money that is useless now and Daryl cheating so that he doesn't win seemed like the most adorable thing in the world. I had to do it. I'm glad that you liked the last chapter and don't worry, I think Ben finally realized that he shouldn't question Em when she says she can handle something. I hope that you liked this chapter too!  
**czmgrace: **Your review made my day! And I'm so happy that you love Matt. I'm pretty fond of him too. Which is why I tend to use him to prompt important conversations between Daryl and Em. Matt knows where it's at.  
Well I'm so glad that something about my summary jumped out at you. I'm really bad at summaries, I'm not going to lie. So I'm like ... "is this gonna seem interesting to anyone besides me?" And your name was going to be Emerson? I'm so jealous! I love that name. And your mom should have let you keep it because I think it's **adorable** on a girl. I love boy names for girls, I think they're great. (This coming from the girl with one of the girliest names ever, Chloe Jane ... but family calls me CJ so I think that counts right?)  
It's been two episodes... let's see here without giving too much away... Arrow on the Doorpost was interesting because you know, Rick's trying to get out of his crazy phase and he's forced to deal with the governor (the slimey bastard). I think my favorite part though was Daryl and Martinez, they started to form this little bromance. I thought it was so cute. Sharing cigarettes and talking about their bosses. LOVED IT. And Prey was amazing. The only thing I can say about it is **DON'T YOU DARE KILL MILTON. **He's my baby now.  
And don't worry about the long ranting reviews! I love them.  
**hazeleyedcurly: **I'm so glad that you have discovered this story! Welcome! Thank you for the review and I hope that you enjoyed this chapter as well!  
**bashyl: **Hello dear! I hope after this chapter you'll be able to say that you enjoyed reading the last three chapters! Thank you so much for your review!  
**middlekertz: **I didn't even know that I wanted to see one until you said that you wanted to see one. Don't give up hope yet, dear. There may be on in the near future. #SecretsOfTheTimeline.  
**Malachite16819: **I wish I could update every day or every other day. But real life's a bitch and it doesn't let me. :( But I'm glad that you love Emeryl and I hope that you enjoyed this chapter as well! Thank you so much for your review!  
**Franne: **And I was so happy when I saw your review! I'm sorry Season two ended, but how badass was that ending? I loved it. You can't watch season three online? I'm sorry, dear. I try not to post too many spoilers on here! I don't want to ruin season three for you. But I will tell you two things:  
1. It's amazing.  
2. Emerson is not in it.  
All the same, I am happy to provide you with your Walking Dead needs until season three starts for you! :D  
Thank you so much for your review and I hope that you enjoyed this chapter as well!  
**fireflyandowl: **No! I could never kill Lou. I love him too much for that. That's a bit sad, I love a fictional dog too much to kill him. But honestly, killing the dog would be like killing a baby. Unnecessary and mean. I couldn't do it if I tried. I agree with you, they're worse than human deaths.  
**DBugMom: **Everyone seems to want the marriage (and that's okay, I kind of want it too. We'll have to see. #SecretsOfTheTimeline.) It would be nice to see. And like a sign of hope that even though the world is a horrible place now love still happens. That's it! I'm sold! I hope you liked this chapter! There was some flirty mush in the middle of it ... did you catch it?  
**Callalily8: **And I love that you love this story! I love hearing from people that read it all in one day. It's a surprise that I can keep that entertained for that long. It makes me really happy. What also makes me happy is that you liked the pace their relationship too. I love Daryl and I wanted them to just jump into being happy and a couple. But that wouldn't have happened in real life and it's not exactly a basis for a long story. So I didn't want to mess up my chances of writing say, thirty-seven chapters. :D Thank you so much for your review and I hope that you enjoyed this chapter too!  
**missy7293: **Here's the next chapter dear! I hope you enjoy it!  
**JerZeeSkyLine: **Again another vote for marriage! We shall have to see. Thank you so much for your review (I've missed your face ... er name in the review list!) I hope you enjoyed this chapter!  
**mrc1979: **Ah! Another person who read the whole story so far in one day! That makes me so happy! I'm so glad that you're enjoying the story so far and I hope that you liked this chapter as well! Thank you so much for your review and I hope to hear from you soon!  
**Zodiacgirl14: **And I absolutely fell in love with your review! (I'm not even kidding. Flattery like this makes me blush and squeal like I'm in middle school all over again. It's not funny.) I'm glad that you're enjoying that I'm doing my own things. (There are of course some things that are similar as you'll see in the next chapter, but a lot of it's as far away from the TV show or comics as I can get.) I don't want people to ever be able to guess what's coming next. That'd be sad and I'd have to wonder why they were reading the story!  
And you read it all over night? I love that! Hopefully you weren't too tired when you got to work the next day! I hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as the previous thirty-six (woah? I love that it's that many) chapters!  
**Gaby de Brabant: **I'm so happy that you liked the chapter and the conversation between Daryl and Matt and Daryl and Emerson. I had so much fun with them.  
As Carl and Beth go, they kind of hinted at it when Team Prison moved into the prison. But it's been kind of on the down low ever since. I like it just because it makes sense. Beth is the closest person Carl has in age in the group. And he's getting to the age when he's going to start noticing and liking girls. So to me, it's just like, of course he'd go for Beth. But that's just me. :D  
**book elf: **Hello!  
I'm thrilled that you enjoyed the last chapter. And I'm keeping my fingers crossed that you'll like this one too. And it is flattery even if it is the truth... it's just truthful flattery. And I love it. I'm so happy that this fic brings out the things that you wish for in the show. And you're more than welcome for the characters. I'm so glad that you're enjoying them!  
**Zaphut: **Oh! This was another review that I squealed, blushed, and flailed over! Ah! I love it. You know how to make a writer blush! I'm so glad that I could make you relate to my characters with "a snap of the finger" and I'm equally happy that you're hooked on the story! What?!  
As for Lori ... you'll have to wait to see. #SecretsOfTheTimeline (bahahaha) I think I'm putting my own kind of twist on it a bit. At least as far as it happens. But there's only so much I can do when actual medicine is telling me that what I want to happen isn't exactly possible. Sigh...  
And no peeing your pants! Here's the next chapter! I hope you love it!  
Phew... deep breath. That was a lot of reviews! Thank you guys so much!  
I really hope that you enjoyed this chapter.  
Until next time, happy reading!  
Hugs and kisses,  
Chloe Jane.


	39. Chapter Thirty-Eight

Disclaimer: I do not own the Walking Dead, although I'm completely obsessed with it and wished I did. Emerson, however, I do own.

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... Umm ...  
I was going to post this chapter to make everyone feel better after what happened on tonight's episode.  
But then I realized that this probably won't make anybody feel any better.  
But I had already done all the work.  
So it got posted anyway.  
I'm sorry for anybody who hoped that they could escape to a happy place with this chapter.  
Cause that won't be happening.

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Now, because I don't want to ruin anybody's day who hasn't seen last night's episode.  
**IF** you want to know what I thought either send me a private message on here (or on tumblr)  
or I guess you can just ask in your review and I'll send you a private message.  
I need people to rant to, but I don't want to ruin it for anybody who hasn't seen it.

All I can say about tonight's episode is: I WAS RIGHT. AND I'M SO MAD ABOUT THAT!

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For those of you that have seen season three there will be a lot of familiar things in this chapter.  
It just fit right. I changed things a little bit, but I completely kept Lori's speech  
(She deserves it and I'm pretty sure I couldn't write anything better.)

But in case you're worried. This is the only chapter that will kind of intersect with the series.  
Everything else will still be following the timeline in my head and not what's going on during the season.

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Also did anyone know that they're planning on killing **TWENTY-SEVEN** people in next week's episode.  
Count it: TWENTY-SEVEN!  
I have a list of people they better not kill. And if they do it I'll be angry.  
They already knocked off one of them. And I'm pissed.  
How the hell do they even have Twenty-Seven characters to kill anyway?!

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Is anybody still reading this?

* * *

Chapter Thirty-Eight:

The group had made it within sight of the infirmary before they saw their first Walker. It wasn't one from the herd in the woods behind the dorm building, Carol would have warned them if those Walkers had changed direction suddenly. Maggie glanced at Emerson for a moment before she rushed forward, knife raised and quickly took down the Walker. They couldn't see anymore, but the one Walker had been enough to create a sense of urgency in the group. Ben started to walk faster, careful not to jostle Lori too much and Emerson ran ahead so that she could unlock the door to the building so that they wouldn't have to wait for her to do it when they got there. Within minutes they were locked inside the building and Ben had set Lori onto an examination table. "Can you go wait outside the door?" Emerson asked quietly, Lori's contractions were coming closer together, the labor was going to start soon and Emerson wanted to give Lori as much privacy as possible.

Ben nodded, he understood and he quickly left the room. Emerson pulled Lori's pants down and checked to see if the woman was dilated. "You're dilated," she said softly, "not enough to begin pushing yet. We're just going to have to wait." She glanced at Maggie, she wasn't sure how long they were going to have to wait, it could take all night. She turned back to Lori with a reassuring smile on her face. "It's all going to be fine, Lori," she said as she reached out for the older woman's hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. "And just so you know, your baby is going to be beautiful. And its going to have so many people that love it. You'll see."

Lori squeezed Emerson's hand really tight, tight enough that she could have broken it if she hadn't let go as soon as the redhead had made eye contact with her. "You know what to do," she gasped out through a contraction. "If it doesn't turn out the way you and Rick want it to. If I don't make it. You know what to do. You have to save my baby! You have to save this baby even if you can't save me. And before," she paused, swallowing around a lump in her throat, "before I come back," another pause. Emerson nodded she knew what Lori meant, but she didn't think that she would be able to handle hearing Lori say it again. She didn't want to hear it. _I know_, she mouthed down to the brunette woman. Lori nodded before she turned to Maggie, "You'll help her?" she asked Maggie. "You'll help the baby? Help her take care of things?" Maggie nodded.

Lori groaned as another contraction wracked her body. They were getting closer, Emerson counted a little more than two minutes between the contractions. "Hey guys," she heard Ben say from outside the room. She and Maggie turned to see Ben and Carl standing in the doorway. "We have a visitor," Ben said, unnecessarily. Carl didn't even look ashamed at the fact that all the women in the room were now glaring at him.

"Carl, what -" Lori started as the young boy rushed into the room to stand next to the examination table. "What are you doing here?"

"You didn't even tell me!" Carl cried out as he grabbed her hand and squeezed it as tightly as he could. "You didn't even tell me that you were leaving, that the baby was coming. You didn't tell me. Why didn't you tell me?"

Lori glanced at Emerson and Maggie over Carl's shoulder and the two women nodded. Lori wanted a little bit of time alone with her son. They turned to leave, Emerson rested her hand on Carl's shoulder for a brief moment, trying to comfort him before she left. "Do they know he left?" she heard Maggie ask Ben as she walked out into the hallway. "Do they know that he's here with us? I can't believe he just left without telling anyone," Maggie continued, shaking her head, "but I don't think that they would have let him just come here on his own either."

"They might not know he's here with us," Ben said, shaking his head. "But they know he left." Emerson raised her eyebrows, silently asking Ben how he knew that. Ben pointed to the radio on his belt. "Rick radioed in. The door was left unlocked and apparently wasn't shut all the way. The Walkers moved from the back of the building, but since they weren't headed in this direction Carol didn't let us know." Emerson cursed, she had a feeling she knew where this was going. "There are Walkers in the dorm building," Ben said quietly. "I didn't want to tell you guys, figured that you had enough to worry about."

"Em!" Lori yelled from inside the exam room. "Maggie! I need to push. The baby's coming and I need to push!"

"It's not time yet!" Emerson said, her tone firm as she walked back into the room to try to stop Lori from pushing. "There is no way that you are fully dilated yet. You can't push!"

"But I need to," Lori cried out. "The contractions are right on top of each other and I need to push." Emerson gestured that Maggie should get up behind Lori and hold her hands, to give the woman some leverage and help her push before she dropped down onto the stool in front of the examination table so that she could check to see how dilated the woman was. "Am I ready?" Lori gasped out. Emerson shook her head, there was blood, too much of it. She knew that women bled during childbirth, but this was too much. She couldn't see through all the blood, but she knew that Lori wasn't ready to push, she had a feeling that the woman would never be ready to push.

"I think you're hemorrhaging," she said quietly, placing her hands on Lori's knees and standing up so that she could look at the woman. "If the placenta is too close to the cervical opening it causes what is called a placenta previa." Lori nodded, she had heard of that before, it was what had happened with Carl. "You can't give birth if that happens. It causes a hemorrhage and if we don't get the baby out of you soon, you'll both die." Lori shook her head before she told Emerson that she wasn't going to lose her baby. Emerson nodded, "I know," she said softly. "We're not going to lose this baby." She gestured to Maggie to climb off the table so that Lori could lean back on it. "Gloves and a scalpel," she said to herself as she moved away from the table to get ready.

She turned back to the table in time to see Lori reach out for Carl with tears in her eyes. She wrapped her arms around her son and hugged him close to her before she looked at Maggie and Emerson and Ben who was hovering behind them at the door. "When it's over," she said, glancing between Maggie and Ben because she knew that Emerson would be taking care of the baby, "you have to do it." She shook her head when Maggie tried to argue, "It can't be Rick," she ordered, "it can't be Rick." And then she turned back to Carl, pressing kisses all over his head as if she would never get another chance. Emerson had been holding out hope until she realized that they were absolutely going to have to perform a c-section, but now she knew that after this Lori probably wouldn't have another chance to kiss Carl ever again. "I don't want you to be scared," she told her son. "You're gonna be fine. You are gonna beat this world, I know you will," she said, tears slipping down both her and Carl's cheeks. "You are smart and you are strong. You are so brave and I love you. You gotta do what's right, baby. You promise me you'll always do what's right. It's so easy to do the wrong thing in this world. So if it feels wrong, don't do it alright? If it feels easy, don't do it. Don't let the world spoil you. You're so good. My sweet boy. The best thing I ever did. I love you." Emerson glanced around the room, everyone was crying, Ben even had tears in his eyes. Lori glanced at the redhead, she had gloves on and the scalpel was in her hand. "Alright," she said with a slow nod as Emerson lifted the woman's shirt enough that she would be able to see the old c-section scar. "Alright," she gently pushed Carl away from her, but kept a gentle, comforting hand on his arm. "Alright," she said one more time before she glanced up at the ceiling. "Goodnight love," she whispered.

"I am so sorry, Honey," Emerson whispered as she brought the scalpel to Lori's skin. She wasn't sure if she was apologizing to Lori for what she was about to do to her or to Carl for what he was going to see. Or to everyone in the room including herself for what was about to happen. She just needed to apologize. She started the incision, flinching slightly when Lori started to scream. She didn't want to do this, it seemed cruel to do it without any kind of medication. But she knew that stopping or going slowly would only hurt Lori more. So she began to cut across the scar faster, Lori screamed louder as Emerson cut through the abdominal wall.

"You're killing her!" Carl yelled as his mother continued to scream. "Stop it! You're going to kill her."

"She'll die if I don't!" Emerson explained loudly over the sounds of Lori's screams. In a sick way she liked the screams, it meant that Lori was still alive. She would have to worry when Lori stopped screaming. Which happened shortly after she started to make the incision in the uterus. "Maggie!" Emerson commanded once Lori's screams were silenced, "I need you to give her chest compressions, CPR if possible. We need to keep her heart beating as long as we can. Ben," she glanced over her shoulder at the Marine. "You're not afraid of blood are you?" he shook his head and moved further into the room. "I need you to hold this back," she nodded toward the abdominal wall that her hands were holding up at the moment. "I can't get to the baby if I'm holding this as well." He nodded and without even stopping to put gloves on put his hands inside Lori's stomach to help her.

"Is the baby okay?" Carl asked, his voice tense and worried as he moved around the exam table so that he could stand next to Emerson. "You're going to be able to save them right?"

"I hope so," Emerson whispered as she reached into the uterus so that she could pull out the baby. It was small, too small, but she found it and pulled it out. They didn't have any clamps to clamp the cord with, they were going to have to use a clip that was usually used to close potato chip bags. She clipped the umbilical cord and pulled out the baby, a small girl. "Too quiet," she murmured to herself.

"Everything okay?" Maggie asked as she stopped doing heart compressions and turned to look at Emerson. Emerson nodded as she brought the small baby up to her chest and gently patted her back. She knew that c-section babies were often quieter than babies that went through a normal birth, they needed to be woken up almost, but she wasn't sure if this little girl was even breathing. She hoped that the warmth of her body and the sound of her own heartbeat would be enough to help the baby. It was slow, but the baby started to move and then it started to cry. "Thank God," Maggie gasped out.

Emerson nodded. "I just have to tie this off," she whispered, she tied the umbilical cord and used the scalpel to cut the cord before she moved to the sink and started to run warm water so that she could clean the baby off. She turned back to look at Maggie, "Lori?" she asked quietly. Ben was the one that answered her, he moved to Lori's head and put his hand over her mouth, checking for breath. There wasn't any. He glanced up at Emerson and shook his head. Emerson nodded, she had a feeling about that, she had known. She glanced at Ben and asked him to radio Rick and see if it would be safe to start heading back to the dorm building or if they should just wait until the next morning. Ben nodded and left the room so that he could do that. "We'll," Emerson said softly, glancing between Carl and the dead woman on the exam table. "We'll have to."

Maggie nodded and gestured that Emerson and Carl should leave the room, that she would take care of it, but Carl shook his head. "She was my mother," he whispered. "Is my mother. I'll do it." Emerson and Maggie nodded and quickly left the room so that Carl could be alone with Lori for a moment. She couldn't stop the tears that fell from her eyes when she heard the gunshot and saw Carl walk out of the room. "She's gone," he whispered quietly.

"Oh Honey," Emerson breathed quietly as she handed the baby over to Maggie and held her arms open for the young boy. For a moment she thought that Carl was going to refuse her hug, to tell her that he was too old for that, but a second later he had launched himself into her arms, he buried his face in her stomach and wrapped his arms around her. "It's going to be okay," Emerson whispered as she dropped her head down and peppered the top of Carl's head with kisses. "You'll see. It's going to be better tomorrow."

Ben walked back to the hallway, "Rick says to stay here tonight," he said. "Head back to the dorm in the daylight when we can see the Walkers at least."

"How many of them are there?" Emerson asked quietly, refusing to let go of Carl.

"Enough," Ben said quietly, glancing at Carl carefully. "Enough that Rick doesn't want us out there in the dark. Not with his kids."

-.-.-.-.-

Ben woke them up the next morning just after sunrise. "Rick says it's safe," he whispered to Emerson. The group had moved into the large room with the cots and Emerson had pushed two of them together so that she could sit in one and hold the new baby while Carl curled up next to her, his head in her lap. He had woken up a few times during the night crying for his mother and Emerson had been glad that she was there to offer him even the smallest bit of comfort. She gently shook the boy awake and smiled softly at him, hoping that she was right when she had promised him that everything would be better in the morning.

"Ready to go?" she asked, glancing between Maggie and Carl.

"Yeah," Maggie said with a nod as she climbed off her own cot. She glanced toward the hallway that led to the exam rooms, her face darkened thinking about what had happened in there the night before. "Let's get out of here."

Emerson nodded and stood up from the cot before she held out a hand to Carl. "Do you want a minute?" she asked him, nodding toward the same hallway Maggie had just been glaring at. "Do you need to say goodbye?" Carl shook his head as he reached out and grabbed Emerson's hand.

"That's not her," he said. "She's gone. I don't need to say goodbye to that."

Emerson nodded, her heart clenching at the cold tone Carl had used. He was right, his mother was gone, but that didn't stop her from hurting for the boy. He had to grow up well before his time and she felt so sorry for him that he was so cold, and so young. "Okay," she said softly, squeezing Carl's hand gently as she readjusted her grip on the baby. "Let's go then." The two other adults in the group nodded and they quickly left the building, pausing only for a moment to lock the door behind them before they continued toward the dorm building. They could smell the Walkers before they saw them, but when the rounded the corner of Ben's dorm building they saw the bodies, more than twenty of them laying on the ground in the bright, early morning sunlight. There was a burning pile of them in the corner of the quad, down by the gates to the car lot. Emerson raised her eyebrows in surprise, there were a lot more Walkers than she had expected.

Both groups were waiting for them when they finally made it to the middle of the quad. The blonde girl from Ben's group, Jamie, was helping T-Dog and Carol move Walker bodies toward the pile. Jared was standing with Rick, Glenn, and Daryl pointing at a campus map on the ground, the men were trying to figure out where all the Walkers had come from and why. Emerson felt tears start to fill her eyes when her gaze fell on Rick, he didn't know yet - he couldn't know yet and that broke her heart. Glenn was the first one to notice them, he had glanced up to check on Matt who was walking Lou around the quad when his gaze landed on the smaller group making its way toward them. "Maggie!" he breathed before he straightened up and started running toward the brunette. Maggie had let out a strangled sounding sob before she ran to Glenn and threw herself in his arms.

Emerson choked on some of her tears and swayed on her feet when Carl pulled away from her to walk toward the group. Ben was there in a split second, his arm around her waist to keep her steady as Rick made his way closer to her. "How am I going to tell him?" she whispered as Rick started to jog toward them, she could barely hear the sound of Maggie's sobs over the noise of her own heart beating in her ears. "How am I going to tell him that I killed his wife?"

"Shh," Ben soothed her quietly. "You didn't kill his wife. You tried to save her and when you couldn't you did what she asked you to do. You saved her baby. You didn't kill her, you helped her."

"But I could have done more," Emerson pointed out, her breath coming out in short bursts. She was about to hyperventilate, she could feel it. "I could have tried to stitch her up, I could have done something. Anything. I didn't try enough, I didn't do enough. There was so much more that I should've tried. Why didn't I?" she glanced up at him with tense, worried eyes. "Why did I give up?" Ben shook his head at her and pulled her closer to him, shouldering most of her weight so that she wouldn't fall. He whispered to her as Rick got closer to them and told her that there wasn't anything she could have done, that there was too much blood and that there was no chance she would ever be able to have saved Lori. It sounded right, and deep down Emerson knew that he was telling her the truth, but as she watched Rick run closer and closer to her all she could think was that she hadn't done enough

"Lori?" Rick questioned once he was close enough to them that he could be heard without having to scream. Emerson shook her head, glancing down at her foot. She couldn't even look him in the eye. "No!" Rick had yelled, almost sobbing. He turned to look at Carl and he knew, from the look on the boy's face what had happened to his mother, what the boy had done. "No, Carl! No!" he all but wailed before he spun around and walked away. Emerson watched him, it didn't look like the older man was seeing where he was going. He dropped down to the ground on his back and covered his eyes with his hands. She shook her head and looked back down at her foot. No matter what Ben had said, she had done this to him, she had done this to Rick.

"Ben!" The redhead and the marine looked up to see Jamie standing in front of them. "You're okay," the brunette had gasped, she leapt forward and wrapped her arms around the older man, causing Emerson to sway unevenly as he still had his arm wrapped around her waist. Ben hugged her back for a moment before he let go of the young brunette, he looked over her shoulder, his gaze landing on Jared and asked her where Tristan and Lindsey were. Jamie sighed, "Inside," she said, gesturing with her chin toward the dorm building that Rick's group was staying in. "With Hershel."

Ben's gaze landed hard on her after that statement. "What happened?" he asked quietly.

"It's bad, Ben," Jamie said, shaking her head. "We left the dorm last night. To help Rick and the others. And a Walker grabbed onto Lindsey's leg, twisted her ankle and brought her down to the ground. Tristan tried to save her. He got bit. Hershel's trying to figure out what to do now."

Ben glanced down at Emerson, silently asking her if she was okay. Emerson nodded, "I'll be fine," she whispered quietly, jerking her chin toward Daryl who was quickly making his way toward Emerson and Ben. "Go."

Ben nodded and he let go of her before he ran toward the dorm building. Emerson stumbled slightly at the loss of support. She stumbled forward a few steps and almost started to fall. Daryl was there before she could curse herself for her own lack of balance. "You okay, honey?" he whispered. He brought his hands up to her cheeks so that he could cradle her face in his hands. He looked over her quickly to make sure that she was okay - she was dirty and covered with blood, but as far as he could tell most of it, if not all of it, wasn't hers. "You okay?" he asked her again when she didn't respond right away.

She opened her mouth to speak, but she couldn't say anything. She nodded, tears spilling down her cheeks as she curled around the baby in her arms. She smiled through the tears when Daryl mimicked her action and curled his body around hers, "I saved her," she said softly, looking down at the baby. "I saved her."

"You did, honey," Daryl said with a gruff nod as he wrapped his arms tighter, pulled her body closer to his. "You did a good job."

-.-.-.-.-

An hour later things still didn't feel right. There were still Walker bodies everywhere, the group hadn't decided what to do with Tristan, Rick hadn't even looked at the baby yet - he had gotten off the ground and stormed off behind the dorm building without saying a word to anyone, no one had brought up burying Lori. The group was broken, that much was clear. "We should get the formula," Maggie whispered softly from her spot next to Glenn. "The baby's got to be hungry."

Emerson nodded, she wasn't sitting on the ground like Maggie and Glenn. She and Daryl were still standing, Daryl had his arm wrapped tightly around her shoulders and her head was resting on his chest, Lori's baby was still in her arms. "We're going to need more formula," she whispered quietly. "And diapers if we can get them. The four containers we got aren't going to last very long at all, maybe a few days if she's really hungry." Daryl made some noise about how they could wait for a little while to make the run, that it wasn't truly important, not yet. Emerson shook her head, "If we don't get more formula she's going to die. It'll only be a matter of time."

"No," Daryl said, shaking his head and pulling away from her, "No one else is going to die. Especially not this baby. I'll make a run."

"I'm coming with you," Maggie said, quickly standing up and moving away from Glenn. "I owe that to her, to Lori." No one argued, they didn't like the idea of splitting up, but they knew they needed the supplies, they had all seen enough death over the past night they didn't want to think of the baby dying too. "We'll go to that daycare center," Maggie said with a slow nod, "the one Em and I were talking about last month. We'll go there."

Daryl nodded and squeezed Emerson closer to him for just a moment before he pulled away from her and nodded toward Carl and the direction Rick had walked off to. "Watch out for the kid," he said softly. "And for Rick. He ain't in the best shape right now."

Emerson nodded, "Be safe," she whispered, rocking up on her tiptoes for a moment so that she could kiss him on the lips. "Come back to me?"

Daryl nodded before he pulled away from her. He reached out and gently brushed a finger across the baby's cheek. "I always do," he whispered.

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Author's Note:  
I was hoping that posting this would make me feel better.  
But it doesn't. I still can't breathe right. And my chest still feels tight and hurts.  
But I want to thank each and every one of you for stopping by and reading!  
Special thanks goes to: _Asalija, CaptainAmericanna, JunkoTheHatter, SummerSalvatore,_ and_ Thawk6 _who added this story to their **Favorites List**. And to: _0TigerFang0, Asalija, CaptainAmericanna, Mo1869, TT24, Ulander24, jlhtbs, _ and _priscillaportillo92 _who added this story to their **Alerts List**.  
But the **BIGGEST** of special thanks goes to those of you who **REVIEWED** on the last chapter:  
**Kisitechie: **Hopefully you didn't need fluff again today. Cause there wasn't any of it in this chapter, not really. (But worry not dear ... #SecretsOfTheTimeline says that there is some mush coming your way soon!) Thank you so much for your review!  
**piratejessieswaby: **I wasn't shocked about Milton. I so desperately wanted him to be a good guy that I made myself believe he was. So when he helped Andrea I was like, "of course he'd do that." My problem is that I absolutely adored the man who died tonight. LOVED him ... and I posted like two weeks ago on my blog that I thought he was going to die, but it still killed me when he did. Anyway ... that's depressing and so was this chapter. I hope you enjoyed it all the same! Thank you so much for your review.  
**FanFicGirl10: **I had to kill her! I really didn't want to! But there's next to no way for a woman to survive a C-section under those circumstances. I did put research into it ( I research things a lot.) As for your feeling about Emeryl ... maybe, but maybe not. I don't know. (Actually I do... #SecretsOfTheTimeline :p) I updated sooner than I planned to just to make up for the cliffhanger I left you with last time! I hope you enjoyed this chapter.  
**Dalonega Noquisi: **I mean, hating me will all depend on how much you like happy endings vs. realistic ones. :p. I can't tell you what's going to happen, but I can say that I sincerely hope that I end this story well enough that while everyone might not be happy with me they will at least not hate me. (fingers crossed on that one.)  
**missy7293: **You're more than welcome, dear! I think Emerson is one awesome chick too. And while we're on the subject I think you're pretty awesome too. Because you review! And I like that! I hope that you enjoyed this chapter as well!  
**czmgrace: **How could you not love Milton? I fell in love with him when he was doing the study on the old guy and he told Andrea that he had never left home before the Walkers. I was just like, "Oh my God! My baby!" And have been like that pretty much ever since. He just needs to join Team Prison. That would be perfect (except not because of who we lost this week ... nothing will ever be perfect again).  
I'm sorry for the cliffhanger! But I'm pretty sure that I left this one on a fairly solid note so that should make up for it right? And I had to kill her. (I didn't really want to. I liked my Lori, but it was highly improbable/impossible that she would survive and I have this thing about trying to make things as realistic as possible.)  
Thank you so much! I'm glad the writing is still fabulous and I hope that you enjoyed this chapter as well! And I'm so glad you're enjoying If I Die Young. It's kind of my goal to have you all addicted to my writing by the end of the year.  
See you soon dear!  
**Franne: **Well I am thrilled that you enjoyed the last chapter and I hope that you enjoyed this one as well. And I'm sweet and funny? So are you dear! Thank you so much for your review!  
**Asalija: **Okay, I just adore you! I'm so glad that you found my story and that you have since become addicted to it. (You didn't necessarily say that, but considering that you read it in the span of a couple days and love it, I'm going to assume!) And thank you! It means a lot to know that people think that this story is amazing and that I'm an amazing author. It really does (I squeal and giggle and flail when I read things like that).  
And it means just as much that you are enjoying Emerson and my version of Daryl. I was really worried when I started writing for Emerson (I only do OCs, but a lot of people don't like them) and my biggest worry was that she wouldn't be believable. So the fact that people tell me she is is really great! And Daryl, he's my favorite to write because we see peaks of what he could be in the show, but he's so closed off. And I just love getting the chance to show off how much he can care about people!  
Sadly I didn't keep Lori alive. I wanted to because you're right, it would be interesting. But for what I want to happen later in the story (#SecretsOfTheTimeline) she had to die. Plus it wouldn't have been very realistic to keep her alive. And there might be a merging, but my lips are sealed. I am so glad that you enjoyed the last chapter and I hope that you liked this one as well!  
**Malachite16819: **I only suck when I'm getting something in return! (oops was that too perverted. Sorry! I get that way when I'm up late.) I couldn't update on Friday ... but I did update on Sunday night/Monday morning! I hope that's soon enough for you! I'm so glad you're enjoying the story and I hope that you liked this chapter as well!  
**Guest (1): **I'm glad that you caught the mush! And I'm so glad that you enjoyed the last chapter darling! I'm sorry that I ruined the floaty cloud feeling, but don't worry, there is plenty of mush left in this story! And by the way! You are the sweetest thing ever! Are you really going to reread the whole story when I finish it?  
**Zaphut:** You're back! I'm so glad that you loved the last chapter even though I left you hanging on a rope! The good news is that I didn't leave you hanging for long. (You left your review just as I was typing up the review responses! Good timing there!)  
And while I want to put my own twist on the story, I couldn't put my own twist on Lori. I need her to die for things I have planned in the future and I honestly couldn't do it better than the show did. I loved the way they did it and I couldn't not use it. It was perfect in my opinion. As for Emerson and the baby, you'll see it in future chapters she's going to drop everything for that baby. They're going to have a special bond for the rest of the story.  
And as for what I have planned for Daryl and what happened tonight. I'm pretty damn excited about it. The episode broke my heart (I'm still having trouble accepting it) but I could just see what I wanted to do with the episode for this story and I'm very excited about it. I'm glad that you are excited for it as well! Ahhh! We've got so much good stuff coming soon!  
And no peeing your pants! I updated almost as soon as you reviewed! That's got to count for something, right?  
And that's all I've got for now guys.  
Those of you that saw tonight's episode... stay strong. I love you all.  
Until next time, happy reading!  
Hugs and kisses (and some extra hugs just in case),  
Chloe Jane


	40. Chapter Thirty-Nine

Disclaimer: I do not own the Walking Dead, although I'm completely obsessed with it and wished I did. Emerson, however, I do own.

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So guys! It's game time!  
There's three hours and forty-three minutes until the season finale begins.  
We need to stay strong.  
Put your game faces on! Grab your tissues. Do you need a bowl of ice cream?  
Get it before the episode begins!  
And if you have a tumblr get on there during the episode. I live blog and freak out on tumblr and would love the company.

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Also ... counting the prologue this is the 40th chapter of this story.  
And the first person to review it will be the 500th review!  
**500!**  
So as a huge thank you the next five reviewers (500 - 504)  
Can get one of two things:  
1. You can ask two questions about this story (any two questions) and you will get a private message in your inbox with two straight answers. No games, not hints. Just answers. So if there's anything you want to know about this story. You can get them.  
or ...  
2. If you write a story on here I will read it (if you want me to), tell you what I think of it. And if I love it I will advertise it here.  
The choice is yours (well yours to the next five people that review!)

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Also, shameless plug, but:  
I have another Walking Dead/Daryl story. _If I Die Young_.  
When you're done with this chapter you should check that one out too.  
I hear it's pretty good. :D

* * *

Chapter Thirty-Nine:

Daryl and Maggie didn't get back until late in the evening, it was already dark and he knew that everyone inside the school was going to be worried about them. T-Dog met them at the gate to the car lot and opened it for them, he locked it behind them and then ran to catch up with them so that he could open the gate to the quad for them. "No Walkers in the quad tonight," he said, reassuring them as Daryl stopped his bike on the other side and waited for the man to lock this gate too. Then he drove slowly so that T-Dog could walk next to them. "Rick's still not back," the black man told them quietly. "And the baby hasn't eaten yet, Em can't make her. No one knows what to do." Daryl nodded and asked about Lori's body and Tristan. T-Dog shook his head, "Rick needs to make the decision about Lori. And Ben wants to wait until Tristan goes. He says he can't shoot him when the kid's still alive."

"And Em?" Daryl asked quietly. "How is she holding up?" T-Dog shrugged and told him that Emerson hadn't talked to anyone since Daryl and Maggie had left. He asked them how much formula they had found and Maggie held up her backpack, "All there was," Daryl said with a shrug. "And enough to fill two bags. Hopefully that'll be enough for now." Daryl climbed off the bike once they made it to the dorm building. He grabbed one of bags and headed quickly into the building in search of Emerson. He found her easily, heard the baby before he saw either of them. They were all in the common room, Emerson was still holding the baby, she was swaying back and forth, trying to calm the baby down as it continued to cry.

"Shh," he heard her whisper, basically begging the baby to be quiet, her voice cracked from disuse. "What do you want, baby?" she asked the little girl. "I don't know what you want. I've tried to feed you, I've hugged you, I've left you alone. What more do you want? It's your mother, huh? You want your mother and I'm not her. You know that."

"You haven't tried singing to her yet," Matt pointed out quietly. "Maybe she wants to be sung to."

"Okay," Emerson whispered, still swaying back and forth. "Sure. Let's see here," she tried to think of a good song. Matt suggested his own lullaby. She smiled at him for a moment and nodded, "How very special are we, for just a moment to be, part of life's eternal rhyme. How very special are we, to have on our family tree, Mother Earth and Father time." She smiled when the baby started to calm down a bit. "He turns the seasons around, and so she changes her gown, but they always look in their prime. They go on dancing their dance, of everlasting romance, Mother Earth and Father Time."

"That's good," he heard Hershel whisper softly as the baby calmed down completely. "Maybe now that she's quiet you'll be able to get some food in her stomach."

Emerson nodded and turned to Carl, she offered to let the boy hold his sister, but Carl shook his head. "Not yet," the young boy said, his tone quiet. "It's too soon. I'm not ready." Emerson nodded, she understood, but everyone could see the quiet, pained look in her eyes as she glanced between the two siblings. Daryl moved further into the room and dropped the bag on the floor, Emerson glanced up at him and he saw a ghost of a smile spread across his lips when she realized that he and Maggie had gotten back safely.

"Give her to me," Daryl said quietly, gesturing toward the baby as he picked up the bottle of still warm formula. Emerson handed over the baby right away and sat down on the couch next to her brother, her arms dropped to the side, finally relaxing after she had held the baby for the entire day. Daryl cradled the baby in one hand and used the other to bring the bottle to her mouth. There was a moment when he was sure that she still wasn't going to drink, that no matter how much formula he and Maggie had brought back this baby was going to starve. But then her lips grasped the top of the bottle and she took a few hesitant sips. "There you go," Daryl said quietly, "you like that?" He glanced at Carl, his blue eyes were soft and gentle. "She got a name yet?" he asked quietly.

Carl shook his head, "I was thinking about Sophia," the boy said softly. "Or Amy, Jaquie, Patricia." He glanced around the room, making eye contact with everyone who had known one of the group members they had lost. His eyes finally settled on Emerson, "And then there's Lori." Daryl heard Emerson choke back a sob and he hoped to God that the kid didn't choose to name his sister after his mother or after any of their other dead. That was the last thing the group needed.

He turned to look at the baby in his arms again. She was quiet, happily drinking her formula. "You like that?" he asked her again. "Huh Ass-Kicker?" He looked up at the rest of the group, a grin resting on his lips, "That's good right? Little Ass-Kicker."

Emerson grinned and nodded, "AK," she said softly. "It's kind of cute." They heard the door at the end of the hallway bang open. Everyone turned toward the door that led out into the hallway, waiting, they could hear his angry footsteps. Rick walked into the room a minute or so later, he was completely covered in blood. "Rick?" Emerson asked him quietly. She was the first to speak as she climbed off the couch and walked slowly over to him. He flinched as she reached her hand out toward his face. "Shh," she soothed him quietly as she pulled her sleeve over hand so that she could wipe at the blood on his face. "Are you okay?" she asked him quietly.

He nodded at her, but it didn't look like he could really see her. "I've just been clearing the woods," he said quietly. "Clearing the woods of Walkers."

Emerson's eyes widened and she turned to look at the rest of the group, silently asking them to help her. "You don't have to do that," Hershel pointed out quietly. "Especially not tonight in the dark."

Rick shook his head and it broke Emerson's heart when she heard him whisper something about Lori. She didn't hear all of what he said, but she definitely heard his wife's name. Rick spoke up a little louder and told the group that he was going to go to bed and that he'd burn the bodies in the morning. "You don't have to do that alone," Glenn pointed out, any of it. "We'll figure it all out tomorrow. You hear me Rick?" Rick didn't seem to be listening so Glenn repeated himself, "We'll figure it out in the morning. Together. You don't have to do this on your own." Rick nodded absentmindedly and turned from the room, barely looking at his son or his new daughter. Glenn waited until he heard Rick's door shut before he turned back to the rest of the group. "He's going to be okay right?" No one answered because no one was sure if he would.

-.-.-.-.-

"Are you okay?" Daryl asked quietly as he, Emerson, Matt, and Lou walked into their suite. Emerson glanced up at him and nodded. Daryl shook his head, he didn't believe her and this time he wasn't going to let it go. Emerson had this way of trying to deal with things on her own and that never worked out for her. He reached out and grabbed her arm, he tried not to worry about the fact that his fingers could wrap all the way around her forearm. "Are you okay, Em?"

Her green eyes darted to her little brother who hadn't moved into his room yet, he was standing in the living room looking around as if he wasn't sure what to do with himself. "Not here," the redhead hissed at him before she pulled her arm out of his grasp and moved toward her brother and the dog. "Let's go get ready for bed," she told her younger brother as she gently wrapped her arm around his shoulders. "Go brush your teeth and I'll meet you in your room. I think we need to talk about some things before you go to bed." Matt nodded and quickly went to brush his teeth, he had a lot of questions for his sister.

Daryl stood outside of the bedroom, watching Emerson from the doorway. She turned the camp light on by Matt's bed and sat down after she pulled back the covers so that it would be ready for him when he came back. She was fidgety, jumpy, her hands kept tugging on her clothes or her hair or the blankets. She was trying to be strong for her brother, but she was fragile, about to break. And from the glance she sent him, she knew it. Matt came in a moment later and obediently climbed onto the bed and allowed Emerson to tuck him in. "Lori's dead," the young boy said with no preamble once his sister had pulled away from him. Emerson bit her lip and then nodded her head, there was no beating around that bush. "Did she turn into one of them?" Matt asked, his voice quiet.

"No Baby," Emerson said, her voice just as quiet. "Lori didn't turn into one of them. Carl," she paused and Daryl watched as she swallowed around a lump in her throat. "Carl made sure of that," she said softly. Matt nodded and leaned forward so that he could cuddle into Emerson's body. He asked her about the college boy Tristan. "I don't know," Emerson said softly. "Hopefully he doesn't turn into one of them either. He got bit last night. He has the fever now. I'm hoping that he dies and someone can take care of him before he turns."

"Take care of him like Carl did for Lori?" Matt asked, glancing up at his sister. She nodded quietly, unable to form the words. Matt nodded and thought for a little bit. "Why did Carl have to do it? Why couldn't you have done it? Why did you guys make Carl do it?"

"Carl wanted to do it," Emerson explained in a voice just slightly louder than a whisper. "Maggie was going to," she paused. "Well Maggie was going to do it, but Carl said he wanted to be the one. That it was his mother and that he was going to be the one to keep her from turning. We didn't want him to do it, but he seemed to think that it was his job."

"Would you want me to kill you?" Matt asked quietly, his face tense and worried. "If you were turning into a Walker and you didn't want to. Would you mind if Maggie did it? Or would I have to do it because I'm your brother?" Emerson stared at her brother for a full minute before she bent her head down and pressed her forehead against his. Daryl couldn't hear what she was whispering to her brother, but he watched as the worried look seemed to melt from the young boy's face and he assumed that Emerson was telling him that she was never going to die, at least not anytime soon, and that if she did she wouldn't expect Matt to be the one to keep her from turning.

Emerson forced a soft smile onto her face when she pulled away from her younger brother. "You've had a long day," she said softly, pressing a kiss onto her brother's forehead. "Why don't you go to bed? We can talk again tomorrow if you want to, huh?" Matt nodded and laid himself back down on the mattress. Emerson tucked the blanket in around him and stood up, she leaned over her brother and kissed the top of his head one more time. He caught her hand as she turned to leave the room and asked her where the baby was going to be sleeping. Emerson grinned at her younger brother and squeezed his hand, "Don't worry about Ass Kicker," she whispered softly. "She's sleeping with Carol tonight and she's going to be just fine. You'll see. Everyone is going to be just fine." Daryl had a feeling that she was saying this for herself as well as for her brother. "The sun's going to rise tomorrow morning and it'll be better. Not great, but better."

Daryl wrapped his arm around Emerson's waist as she walked out of her brother's room. She fought him at first, didn't want him to hold her. Daryl let her. She pushed at him, she hit his chest and whispered curse words at him and ordered him to let go of her. And Daryl took the abuse because he knew that that was what she needed. And then, when she fell against him, limp and tired, he dropped one arm behind her knees and one on her back and he scooped her into his arms and carried her to their room. "I hate you," Emerson murmured as he brought her to their bed.

"No you don't," he told her softly as he sat her on the bed and reached out to take off her shirt. She was still wearing the same shirt she had been wearing the night before, she was still covered in blood - Lori's blood. Daryl knelt down on the ground so that he could untie her shoes and take them off as well as her pants. "What do you want to do with these?" he asked her quietly, gesturing towards her clothes. He wasn't sure if they would ever be able to get the blood out of them, but he wasn't sure if Emerson wanted to try.

She shook her head, "Burn them," she instructed before she turned away from him. She didn't even bother finding pajamas, she simply tucked herself under their blankets wearing nothing but her bra and underwear. Daryl stood, watching her for a moment before he asked her if she was okay. Emerson snorted out a bitter laugh. "I've held it together all day," she said softly. "I held it together for everyone else, but I couldn't do it anymore. You came around and I cracked." She shook her head and turned around to glare at him with tear filled, angry green eyes. "You are the problem," she hissed at him. "I can hold it together for anyone else, even Matty, I can be strong. And then you say one word to me and I'm broken. You make me weak. I hate it."

Daryl watched the redhead for a moment longer, silently hoping that she wouldn't hit him. He sat down on the bed next to her and reached out to grab her hand. "You think that you don't have the same effect on me?" he asked her quietly, his voice gruff. "You don't think that I worry about you more than anyone else, that I am so afraid of something happenin' to you? That I don't know that I would be a mess if you got hurt? It's what we do, Em." He scooted closer to the girl and wrapped his arms around her, squeezing her tightly. "We make each other weak. But we also make each other strong. I'm stronger with you. And you're the same way. We're better because of each other."

Emerson stared up at him for a moment before she sighed and nodded. She could see what he meant. She turned her head and buried it in his stomach. "I'm sorry," she whispered softly, she pressed a kiss on his stomach through his shirt. "I know crying women make you uncomfortable," she continued her apology. "And I try so hard not to fall apart around you for that very reason. So I'm sorry."

Daryl shook his head and smiled down at the girl, he reached a hand up and ran his fingers through her hair once before he pulled his hand away. "You can fall apart around me any time you want, I'll just put you right back together," he promised her quietly. "An' after what you saw and did last night I can't blame you for this. Don't you even worry about it."

Emerson nodded and snuggled closer to him. Daryl tried to pull away from her so that he could get ready for bed but she shook her head. "Don't go," she whispered quietly, clutching at his hand tightly. He nodded and whispered to her that he just wanted to take his shoes off. She nodded and allowed him to pull away enough that he could untie his boots. He dropped them on the floor and quickly undid his belt and took off his pants before she could pull him back on the bed. Once he was done he slipped under the blankets and wrapped a strong arm around her waist, pulling her closer to his body. He kissed the back of her neck, "Go to bed," he whispered when he felt her body shudder with a quiet sob. "The sun's goin' to rise tomorrow morning and it will be better. Not great, but better," he told her, repeating the very words she had told Matt earlier.

It took the redhead an hour to calm down enough to fall asleep, but Daryl could feel when she did, her breathing evened out and her body relaxed in his arms immediately. He laid in the dark for another minute, ensuring that she was asleep before he lifted his head up and kissed her cheek. "I think," he whispered to the sleeping girl. "I think that maybe I love you."

-.-.-.-.-

Daryl wasn't in bed when Emerson woke up the next morning. Matt wasn't either. After she got dressed she wandered out into the hallway looking for them. They weren't in the hallway or in the common room. In fact she didn't see anybody in the hallway. She ran into Beth as the young girl walked out of her dorm room. "Where is everyone?" she asked the young blonde. She couldn't even hear the baby so she had a feeling that the group wasn't even in the building.

"Outside," Beth confirmed. "I just came in to get a sweatshirt, it's colder than I thought it was." She nodded toward the stairs, "Let's go. They could use our help. We're digging."

"Lori's grave?" Emerson asked quietly, she didn't like the way the words felt on her tongue. It was almost as if she didn't say it very loud it wouldn't be true.

"And Tristan's," Beth said with a nod. "He started to turn last night. Ben stopped it." Emerson nodded quietly, she didn't like it. There had been too much death over the last few days. She hadn't known Tristan very well, but he had seemed like a good kid and he had obviously cared about his friends. And frankly, there were so few humans left that the loss of any of them was hard to take. Emerson wondered how she would feel if someone bad like Darren was killed; she wanted to think that she would be happy - it would mean that he couldn't hurt anyone else, but part of her knew that she would be sad - Darren might have been a bastard but he was human. "You okay?" Beth asked her quietly.

Emerson nodded, "I'm fine," she promised. "Just thinking. Let's go."

The two of them walked out of the building together. Beth was right, it was cold outside, but it was bright and sunny. Too bright in Emerson's opinion. She would have felt better about the day if it was dark and rainy, it would have felt more line with how she felt and what they were doing. Everyone was there except Rick. Carl and Matt were sitting on the front steps, Carl was holding his little sister and Matt was petting Lou. Emerson smiled at the sight of Carl holding the baby, he hadn't wanted to touch the baby the day before, it felt better this way. The rest were still working on burning Walker bodies and Ben and T-Dog were digging two graves side by side in the corner of the sunny quad. Jared was the first to notice the two walking toward the group. He looked relieved and started toward them quickly. Emerson raised her eyebrows in confusion, she hadn't seen Jared since before the herd came through. Before that they had been civil to each other, she had helped train him, but they hadn't been particularly close.

He paused in front of her for a moment, just looking at her before he surged forward and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her small frame toward his chest. "They told me that you were okay," he told her. "They told me that everything was okay, but I guess I needed to see." Emerson nodded; she wasn't sure why he needed to be so sure about her safety, but she could understand the need in itself. When Daryl had been shot it didn't matter to her how many people told her that he was okay, she needed to see it for herself. Jared must have read the confusion on her face, "We've just lost so many people recently," he muttered as he pulled away, he glanced over his shoulder at the graves, "I don't want to lose anymore." His eyes lingered on Lindsey for a moment and Emerson smiled, she had been pretty convinced that Jared and Lindsey were dating. She patted him on his arm for a moment before she moved closer to the graves.

Daryl glanced up at her, he was standing next to the grave T-Dog was digging with Carol. She smiled up at him softly and moved quickly to his side. He wrapped his arm around her waist and dropped a kiss onto the top of her head. "I'm sorry," she whispered quietly, she was apologizing for how she had behaved the night before, for yelling at him and telling him that she hated him. The look on his face and gentle smile that slipped across his lips told her that not only did he understand what she was apologizing for, but that he had accepted it before she had even voiced it. "And," she said softly as she unwrapped her arm from around his waist, "you too."

"Me too?" Daryl asked, raising his eyebrows in surprise and confusion. He had no idea what she was talking about, or he wanted to pretend that he had no idea. He glanced at the people around them to see if they were listening to their conversation, but no one was even looking at them. "What are you talking about?" he asked quietly. She had been sleeping the night before, he was sure of it. There was no way that she had heard him. She must have been talking about something else. The redhead sent him a wicked grin before she grabbed his hand and gave it a gentle squeeze.

"I think I love you too," she whispered. She squeezed his hand one more time before she pulled away from him and walked over to where Matt and Carl were sitting with the baby. Daryl watched her with wide eyes and couldn't stop the laugh that bubbled out of him as she sat down between the two boys and wrapped her arms around their shoulders. He could have sworn that she was asleep, but he had been wrong. And instead of telling him the night before she had waited until the one moment when he couldn't react the way he wanted to.

Because at this moment all he wanted to do was wrap his arms around the redhead's slim body, lift her up, and have her up against the wall of the nearest building. She winked at him as Carl handed her the little baby, she knew what he was thinking. She had done this on purpose. But as he watched her look at the baby he realized that she had done this for more reasons than to just tease him. Today was going to be a hard day, a bad day for everyone. And she had known exactly what Daryl needed. Her telling him that she loved him was the hope that he needed, that everyone needed really, that even when they lost people, even when they were surrounded by Walkers - there was still hope and love in this life. And he realized something, the night before he had told her that he thought that he loved her. But in this moment, watching her hold the baby and interacting with the children, he realized that he didn't think anymore - he knew. He loved her. He loved Emerson Phillips. And he was going to tell her. He was going to tell her that night.

He didn't get a real chance to talk to Emerson for the rest of the day. They buried the bodies if Lori and Tristan that afternoon. Rick didn't come. The group didn't even have an idea where he was. He'd disappeared again somewhere on the campus, killing Walkers. Emerson had spent the rest of the afternoon with Carl, they shut themselves up in Rick's room with Judith. Daryl had no idea what happened while they were in there, but Carl looked better when they came out, happier. The kid still looked like he was a wreck, but it wasn't as bad as it had been that morning. Daryl had caught Emerson's green eyed gaze and he had nodded at her. He was glad that the kid had her to take care of him.

Emerson had stared at him, watching him carefully for a moment before she nodded, "Can we have a group meeting in the common room?" she asked loud enough that everyone, even those people that were in their rooms could hear her. Carl asked if he could come too. Emerson glanced at him and Matt who had walked out of their room. She sighed, this was against her better judgement, but she figured that they were part of the group and that maybe they should be part of the decision. "Fine," she said softly. "You guys can come too."

Daryl watched her, his eyebrows raised as she followed the two boys and Lou to the common room. Glenn clapped him on the shoulder as he and Maggie walked out of their room. "Do you know what this is about?" he asked Daryl as they walked down too. Daryl shrugged, he had no idea why Emerson had called the group meeting. Ben's group was in the common room, they had officially moved into the dorm building that day too. Rick's group had started to trust them, but when they had lost one of their own when they helped Rick's group fight off the Walkers the group decided to trust them completely. "Where's Lindsey and Jamie?" Glenn asked when he walked into the common room and saw Ben and Jared waiting for them, but not the two girls.

"They're keeping watch tonight," Ben said, pointing to the roof. "They were really shaken up after," he paused and glanced around the room, everyone knew what he was talking about. "Well since they couldn't sleep last night they decided to volunteer to keep watch tonight. Put their insomnia to good use and what not." The marine turned to look at Emerson, "What's up, Little Mermaid? Is this about Rick?"

"No," Emerson said, shaking her head, "It's not about Rick. It's about someone else that's part of this group." She waited until everyone had sat down before she told them why she had wanted the meeting. "Before all this happened I offered to help you guys find Merle if you wanted me to," she said softly, she refused to meet Daryl's gaze. "You all know what he did, but he was still a part of this group. And I think it's time to decide if we bring him back or not."

Jared raised his hand in the air, "Um, I don't know what he did? You know, besides helping kill Ben's group before he came to the school," the boy said, glancing around at the rest of the people around him. "Anyone going to clue the new kids in?"

"He assaulted my girl," Daryl growled.

Ben glanced back and forth between Daryl and Emerson. "You mean he," the marine started, though he didn't really want to finish the sentence. "He ra-"

"Long story short," Glenn cut him off before he could say the word, he shot a glance at the two young boys who were part of the circle, "he wasn't very nice to Em." The Korean glanced at Emerson and the look in his eyes told her that he understood just what it took for her to make this offer, "And I think it is amazing that you'd even offer to help us find him." He paused, "If we wanted to find him, that is."

"That's what this is about," Emerson said with a nod, "we're going to vote and decide if we want to find him."

"How's that going to work?" Carol asked quietly. "Does it need to be unanimous? Or just majority rules? Will we ask Rick? Does he get a vote?"  
"I'm not sure if Rick is in the right frame of mind to vote," Hershel said softly. "Not right now, that is. We should probably leave him out of this." The older man looked around the circle, trying to guess how many people would vote to look for Merle, he didn't think it would be that many. "I don't see why we can't just go with the majority," he said before turning to look at Emerson. The redhead nodded at him, silently giving him control of the vote. "Let's make it easy," Hershel said with a sigh. "Those who want to try to find Merle raise your hand."

At first no one raised their hands. Carol looked around the circle, "I think that regardless of which way you vote you should have to explain your reasoning," she told the group. Everyone nodded their agreement, but still, no one raised their hands.

"Last chance," Hershel said quietly. "Who thinks that we should go find Merle?"

And then, to everyone's surprise, Emerson's hand shot into the air.

* * *

Author's Note:  
And that's all I've got for now. But I'm pretty excited about it.  
This was a pretty good chapter if you ask me. Set us up for some very important things.  
But no one's asking me. I'm asking you guys. What did you think of the chapter?  
Thank you so much for stopping by and reading this chapter. Special thanks goes to: _whosegirl, DarylDixonsWife, HollywoodBound, Wolfihood, heboosh, Bleeeep, peacewithinchaos, whatwouldhappenifpieswerefli es, CassieNicole, LadyJoker97, _and _Senora Sapphire_ for adding this story to their **Favorites List**.  
And to: _Ulander24, Allieesunshine, HollywoodBound, Wolfihood, Bleeeep, maryb1439, peacewithinchaos, CassieNicole, LadyJoker97, _and _Senora Sapphire_ who added this story to their **Alerts List**.  
But as always the **BIGGEST** of special thanks goes to those of you who **REVIEWED** on the last chapter:  
**FanFicGirl10:** I agree. Twenty-seven characters is crazy talk! And I have a list of characters that they better not touch. I will be so upset if they do!  
I'm sorry that the last chapter put you in an even worse mood! That's not what I wanted at all. I hope that this chapter didn't make you upset. (Also, I agree. I used to think that Lori's death was sad and then I saw Merle's. That one broke my heart.) As for what's going to happen to the lovable redneck in my story don't worry! I have my own plan for that.  
**ReaderGirl66: **I'm so glad you enjoyed the last chapter and I hope that you enjoyed this one as well! And of course you may say that I had you misty-eyed! Did I really? And is it okay if I'm happy about that? I've always considered it a sign of good writing when an author can really make someone feel something!  
**middlekertz: **I think I forgot to message you dear! But last week's episode was amazing. That's mostly what I thought of it. Amazing and heartbreaking and terrible all rolled into roughly 45 minutes of episode and I couldn't handle it. And tonight's going to be even worse. I just know it. I'm going to need so many hugs when this is all done!  
**Wolfihood: **Twelve hours? Shit! Well ... welcome! I'm very happy that you're enjoying this story so far! Thanks for reading! What caught your attention and made you decide to read my story? And thank you so much for your review! I loved reading it! I hope that you enjoyed this chapter as well!  
**Kay1104: **You weren't the only one sobbing last week, honey. And I'm sure there will be sobbing this week too. I'm already sure that I won't be able to handle it. I'm glad you liked the last chapter and I really hope that you liked this one as well!  
**Dalonega Noquisi: **Did I make you cry with the last chapter? I didn't really want that to happen. I'm sorry. But how amazing was last week's episode? Terrifyingly amazing. And this week is going to be the same kind of thing. You'll see. Fingers crossed that you enjoyed this chapter as well, by the way. Thank you so much for your review!  
**piratejessieswaby:** I'm glad you loved the last chapter and I hope that you liked this chapter as well. Be prepared for a message after tonight's episode too!  
**synismysin:** The last chapter really wasn't any good for relief from Walking Dead related pain was it? I'm sorry. I'm hoping that this chapter will be a little easier for everyone, especially with what's bound to happen on tonight's episode. And I know exactly what you mean, the Dixons have always been a huge weakness of mine. And they broke my heart at the end of the episode. I'm still not sure if I'm okay.  
And I'm so happy to know that you're still enjoying the story. :D You can stop by and vent anytime, I'm more than happy to listen/read and vent right back.  
**Franne: **I'm so happy that you enjoyed the last chapter and I hope you liked this one as well. I still get really sad when I'm reminded that you haven't even seen season three yet. I don't think I would be able to function knowing that there were people that knew what had happened and that I'm not one of them. I hope that you liked this chapter as much as the others before it. And don't worry, it's not weird ... I kind of want to see what a baby or toddler Walker would be like and how people would react. Hmmm ... ideas.  
**JerZeeSkyLine: **I'm sorry I made your heart hurt! I was already most of the way through posting last week's chapter before I realized it wasn't going to make anyone feel any better at all. And I agree ... Damn the Walking Dead and damn it for making me love it so much.  
**DBugMom: **Awww! I think this review was one of my favorite reviews ever. It made me so happy to read. So thank you for that! And I'm really happy that you appreciated that I kept Lori's speech in. There aren't many lines or situations from season three that I plan on keeping in this story, but Lori's speech had to make it in there. I had no choice. And I hope that even when my chapters are "down right depressing" they are still amazing! I love you too, dear!  
**Asalija: **Yeah! The new episode was amazing. I can't even handle it. Did you cry at the end of the episode? I did. I cursed and I sobbed and I threw shoes at my fiance. I wanted the Dixons to be safe and instead they broke my heart in about fifteen seconds.  
I'm so glad that you enjoyed the last chapter and I hope that you liked this one as well! I'm really excited about this one and I hope that I make up for making you guys all depressed last week. Let me know, how am I doing?  
**Mischieflover: **Hello! I've missed you! But I'm so glad that you're back!  
As for Emerson leaving Daryl at least this time nothing really happened to her. And to make up for it all they got some mush in this chapter! (did you catch the mush? I hope so.) Anyway, thank you so much for your amazing review! And I really hope that you enjoyed this chapter as well!  
**Zaphut: **I figured that the least I could do was warn you guys before I attempted to break everyone's hearts even more. But thank you! I'm glad that I managed to do her death justice. As for Emerson and Judith, I have some big plans for them. You'll see. And hey! You can get started on Daryl any time, I'd be more than happy to join in. (If it's not obvious, I love the man.)  
And yeah ... twenty-seven. I'm going to be keeping a tally tonight. Keeping track of all the deaths so that I'll know when I can start breathing again. But yeah, his face. It should be illegal to be that convincing of an actor. ILLEGAL!  
**Sangolchimaru:** Plot hole! You caught it! I have no idea. But it shows up later. So I'm assuming that it was loaded in someone's vehicle. Oops.  
**kisitechie: **Nope. The last chapter wasn't fluffy at all. But this one had some fluff. And there's some extremely fluffy parts coming up. You'll see. I'm so glad that you loved the last chapter and I hope that you loved this one as well. Thank you so much! I'm really happy that you think I'm a talented writer. As for what I do for a living ... I am a grad student (education) who's currently teaching creative writing at a community college and trying to be a high school english teacher. So yeah, there's a fair bit of composition in my life. (Secret: my biggest goal is to one day write a book.)  
And that's all I have for now! Thank you guys so much!  
Until next time, happy reading!  
Hugs and kisses,  
Chloe Jane.

Oh ... and I also hear that it's Easter. So I guess happy Easter everyone!


	41. Chapter Forty

Disclaimer: I do not own the Walking Dead, although I'm completely obsessed with it and wished I did. Emerson, however, I do own.

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Anyone else really disappointed by the season finale?  
I was a bit.  
So I wrote some fluff for you.  
I hope you enjoy it!

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Enjoy

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Chapter Forty:

Carol gasped in surprise. No one had expected Emerson to vote in favor of finding Merle, and even if they had expected it no one would have guessed that she would be the first one to raise her hand. It was amazing enough that after everything she had been put through with that group she was willing to offer to help find Merle Dixon. But now she was voting for it. Her hand was shaking slightly, but it stood proudly in the air and nothing about her face said that she was regretting her vote. "He was part of this group," she told them, her voice shaking slightly. "Part of this family. He did some pretty horrible things when he was with Darren's group, but I can't blame him. He did what he had to, to survive. I can't blame him for trying to survive. I won't blame him for that. But it's time to bring him back." She turned to glance at Daryl with wide, tear-filled eyes. "He never stopped looking for you," she told him. "Never. Every time he went out on a raid he talked about looking for his baby brother. He never gave up on you. You can't give up on him." Matt raised his hand to vote with his sister, but Emerson reached out and shoved his hand down. "You're too young to vote," she told him softly. "Maybe next year." Matt pouted, but Emerson told him to stop, "You're lucky enough to be here right now. Don't make me send you to bed."

Glenn was the next one to vote, he kept his hands crossed stubbornly across his chest. "I cannot vote to bring him home," Glenn said, glancing between Emerson and Daryl and apologizing, though he wasn't sure who he was apologizing to. "I know that he's your brother," he said to Daryl. "And I think it's great that you want to forgive him," he added, nodding at Emerson. "But this is my family," he gestured around the circle. "You too, Em. You're like my sister. And Maggie," he paused, glancing at the girl he was talking about. "Maggie's my life. I can't vote to bring him back here where he can hurt her, where he can hurt you again. I won't do it."

Carol shook her head, "Me neither," she said, though she didn't look nearly as apologetic as Glenn did. "You didn't see the two of them together," she said to Emerson. "He's not good for you, Daryl. And he won't be good for the group. I vote no. Leave him where he is."

T-Dog raised his hand in the air and nodded at Emerson. "You guys know why," he said, glancing around at the people who had been part of the original Atlanta group. He shook his head, "He was a racist son of a bitch," he told Daryl, "but he didn't deserve being chained up on that roof. And that's on me. He would still be with us if I hadn't dropped that damn key. So I say that we bring him back. I'm not going to trust him," he warned, "I'll be sleeping with one eye open, but we bring him home first."

Maggie and Beth were sitting next to each other they both turned and looked at each other for a moment, studying their sister before they both raised their hands. Maggie spoke for both of them. "Emerson's right," Maggie said softly. "We can't blame him for surviving. For finding a way to stay alive. I don't know the whole story, but he got left behind and he had to find a way to ally himself with another group. If Em can't blame him for that than neither can we." She glanced at her father for a moment. "You used to teach us about forgiveness, Dad," she told him softly. "If Emerson can forgive one of her attackers than so can we, those who he hasn't wronged."

"Yet," Glenn muttered angrily under his breath. Maggie shushed him.

"I can sure as hell blame him," Ben muttered, keeping his arms crossed over his chest. "He killed some of my men. And after what he did," Ben paused for a moment, looking at the redhead that was sitting across the circle from him. "After what he did to Little Mermaid, I don't want him anywhere near my sister. I won't let him." Jared nodded and kept his hands crossed over his chest as well. He told the group that he agreed with Ben, that Merle couldn't be allowed near Lindsey or Jamie. Emerson nodded, she could understand their reasoning even if she thought it was wrong. There were three more votes, she turned her head toward Hershel.

The older man studied her for a moment before he shook his head, "I can't vote for your side, Emerson," he said softly. "I wish I could. I wish I could practice what I preached years ago to my daughters. But I can't. This is a different world and while I can't fault the man for surviving. I can say that I don't want him near my daughters."

Carl raised his hand, and unlike with Matt no one told the boy that he was too young. After all that he had seen and done over the past few days the young boy had earned the right to vote. "He was part of the Atlanta group," Carl said. "He made it out of the city with us. He helped feed us and defend us. We should get him back. It wasn't right to just leave him like that."

Emerson nodded and looked around the circle quietly for a moment. "It's a tie," she said softly. "Five votes for finding Merle, five votes for leaving him - one vote left." She turned to look at Daryl. "It's up to you, Dare," she said softly. "What do you want?" Daryl shook his head and told her that he couldn't vote one way or another. That the group needed to discuss it amongst themselves, try to persuade people to change their votes, because he wouldn't take part in it. He turned to leave the room, but Emerson stopped him. "Don't you dare run away from this, Daryl Dixon," she ordered angrily. "He's your brother," her voice cracked, forcing Daryl to turn around and look at her. "I know you think that it's easier for you to not vote at all. Because there is no way that you can be remotely impartial. But he's your brother. Your vote counts more than anyone else's. And you cannot run away from this. I won't let you."

Daryl stared at her for a moment before he broke into the circle and moved toward her. "I can't vote," he told her again as he sat down in front of her and reached out for her hand. "Because he's my brother and because of what he did to you. Of course I want him back here, he's family. He took care of me when I was younger, he was always there for me, even when he wasn't around. But I can't forgive him for what he did to you. I get angry every time I think about it. I'm about as likely to shoot him with an arrow than to hug him when I see him. You're so brave, and I love you for wanting to do this for me. But I can't make you live under the same roof with the man who did that to you. That would make me just as messed up and cruel as he was when he did it."

Emerson shook her head at him, tears slipping out of her eyes. Daryl reached out and cupped her face in his big hand. She smiled and leaned into his touch. "You wouldn't be forcing me to do anything," she whispered quietly. "I already voted for this. I want to find him. I've made up my mind. It's not going to hurt me if you want to find him too. I promise."

Daryl stared at her for a moment, before he shook his head. "I can't make this decision right now," he told her quietly. "I'm not saying that I won't," he added when he caught the stubborn look on the young woman's face. "But I can't do it now. Can you guys give me some time to make up my mind?" he glanced around the circle, making eye contact with everyone in the group. They all nodded. "Besides," Daryl said. "I think we should figure out what's going on with Rick before we even begin to try to bring someone else into the group. Don't you think?" Even Emerson nodded at that one. Daryl smiled at the redhead and dropped his forehead down onto hers, "Thank you, Em," he breathed out quietly. "This means a lot." He wasn't good with this sappy stuff, but he wanted to show Emerson how much this meant to him. He stood up from the ground and held his hand out to her, "Come with me," he told her. He pulled her off the ground and turned to look at Matt. "You ready for bed, Matt?" he asked the kid. Matt nodded silently. "K," Daryl said with a nod. "Well, let's go."

The group was quiet as Matt, Daryl, Emerson, and Lou left the room. But the redhead could hear them moving around as she got Matt ready for bed. Daryl had gone straight to their bedroom when they walked into the suite and she hadn't seen him since. She quickly got Matt ready for bed and sang him his lullaby before she shut the door on him and the dog and walked into her bedroom. Daryl was waiting for her, sitting on the bed, and there were candles lit all over the room. Emerson raised her eyebrows at him. Daryl shrugged as he moved off the bed and came to stand in front of her. "I heard that girls like candles and shit," he said as he pushed the door shut and locked it. "We'll have to be quiet though, since Matt's next door."

Emerson stared up at Daryl as if he was the only man in the world and Daryl had never been more sure that he was where he was supposed to be, doing what he was supposed to be doing, than he did at that moment. The redhead stared at him for another moment before she surged onto her tip toes, framed his face with her hands, and pressed her lips against his in a hard, claiming kiss. They had joked about how she belonged to Daryl and he belonged to her, but this kiss wasn't a joke and Daryl was sure that he would never be the same. Emerson grinned against his lips and she softened the kiss, her tongue slipped out from between her lips and licked softly across Daryl's, silently requesting entrance. Daryl didn't make her wait too long and within a second she was licking into his mouth. He groaned when she pulled away and she giggled as she allowed her head to drop, her forehead rested against his chest before she turned her head to the side so that she could look at all the candles, "As romantic as this is," she whispered and Daryl couldn't stop the smile that spread over his lips - Daryl Dixon had never been described as _romantic _before. "We should probably blow out the candles," she continued. "We might need them later."

Daryl nodded, he hadn't been thinking about that when he lit the candles. He had just wanted to surprise Emerson, but she was right. Eventually they would run out of batteries for their lanterns. And while they had the solar powered generators here there might be a time when they wouldn't be able to use them. Although he agreed with her Emerson realized that Daryl hadn't made a move toward any of the candles. She smiled up at him, a giggle escaping her lips before she pulled herself out of his arms and moved around the room, blowing out almost every candle - she left six of them burning. Daryl raised his eyebrows at the redhead when he noticed that she didn't plan of blowing out all the candles. She shrugged at him as she started to slowly take her shirt off. "I look best in candle light," she explained, her tone playful. "It's the most flattering light."

Daryl snorted and shook his head, "You look good in any light," he told her as he helped her out of her shirt. "And don't start talking about flattering light. You can be such a woman sometimes."

Emerson raised her eyebrows at him and reached down so that she could take off his belt and unzip his pants. "Would you rather me be a man?" she asked. "I don't think there's anyway to do that surgery anymore. But if that's what you're into I'm sure that Ben's single. He might be persuaded after a bit."

"Shut up," Daryl chuckled as he pulled his shirt over his head quickly and dropped his pants to the floor. "I'm trying to make love to you and you're trying to tell me to go fuck a man. What is wrong with you?"

"I don't know," Emerson whispered, she was caught off guard by Daryl's phrasing. She hadn't expected him to say those words, _make love_. She liked it. "I just get all nervous around you," she joked. "I get tongue tied and shy and I have no idea how to impress you. I can't stop myself from making a fool out of myself. It's ridiculous, really."

Daryl chuckled and wrapped his arm around Emerson's back, reaching up to unhook her bra. "What's ridiculous is how beautiful you are. Even when you're acting like a fool," he muttered when he dropped the bra onto the floor.

Emerson wrapped her arms his neck and began to press kisses against his naked chest. "Look at you," she whispered softly. "Smooth talking me into bed. I always knew that Daryl Dixon was a player."

Daryl chuckled, that would be the last way he would have ever described himself. He didn't even know how to be a smooth talker. "Is it working?" he asked her as he unzipped her pants and pushed them down her slim legs until they were laying pooled at her feet. "Cause I have no idea what I'm doing here, right now."

Emerson smiled as she stepped out of her pants and pushed Daryl toward the bed. "Is it working?" she parroted back to him as she pulled his pants off of him and his boxers. She quickly stepped out of her underwear and jumped onto the bed in the most unsexy way imaginable. But as Daryl watched her laying on the bed, propped up onto her elbows and giggling he couldn't remember the last time he had seen someone who looked _that_ sexy. The giggle died on Emerson's lips as she turned to look at the older man and caught sight of him studying her. She raised her eyebrows, "Everything okay?" she asked him softly.

Instead of answering her verbally Daryl decided to show her just how okay everything was. He rolled over on top of her and captured her lips in a searing kiss. Her back arched on the bed underneath them as she tried to get as close to him as possible. All she could think was _more_. She needed more kissing, more skin, more of Daryl. Just _more_. Daryl seemed to understand exactly what she needed because he didn't pull away from her lips, but he let one of his hands travel down her body, paying special attention to her collar bones, her ribs, the dip of her stomach and her hip bones before he stroked between her folds. He groaned and pulled away from her so that he could drop his forehead on top of hers, "How are you?" he started, trying to think of a way to describe what he wanted to ask. "How are you ready this fast?" he settled on as he added another finger.

Emerson gasped and arched into his touch even as she shrugged, her shoulders pressed firmly against the bed underneath her. "It's you," she breathed quietly. "It just happens." Daryl nodded as he added another finger. He understood that, plainly, they hadn't done much more than kiss and he was already painfully hard for the small woman in front of him. Emerson wrapped a leg around his hips, bringing their hips tight together. "More," she breathed. "Please?"

The broken, begging tone to her voice almost broke Daryl. Almost. But he wasn't going to do that this time. The first time they had slept together he had planned on it being slow, but Emerson had persuaded him to change his mind. This time that wasn't going to happen, he was determined to do this right this time. "We're doin' this slow," he warned her as he lifted her other leg around his hips and slid into her. "Not like last time."

"Okay," Emerson sighed out, her breathing picked up as Daryl began to move inside her. "Slow it is," She rolled her hips underneath Daryl, bringing them up to meet each one of his slow, deliberate thrusts. Daryl looked down at the beautiful girl in his arms and wondered how he had gotten so lucky. There weren't many people in this world who felt lucky, it was hard when every where you turned you were reminded that the world had gone to shit. But Daryl had been lucky. He had somehow found his way to this amazing group, these amazing people who had become his family, despite the fact that he hadn't wanted them to. And then after the horrors of the farm he had, against all odds, found Emerson. They shouldn't have met; the chances of them meeting before the Walkers would have been slim, they chances of them meeting after the Walkers was close to zero. But they had found each other and they were lucky. Daryl was pretty sure that he was luckier than she was. He was nothing special: he wasn't smart, he didn't think that he was funny or entertaining, he was decent looking but in the old world he didn't think he would have deserved a second glance. Nothing about him explained how he had gotten this girl. This vibrant, intelligent, brave, alive, beautiful girl who was willing to do whatever she could to make him happy - even to find his brother who had mistreated her just so that she could reunite their family.

He didn't deserve her love. But she had given it to him. And he was so grateful for that. She smiled up at him and he could feel her tighten around him as the orgasm built. She closed her eyes as Daryl picked up the pace slightly and he shook his head, a soft growl escaping his lips. "Open your eyes," he whispered. "I want to see you." A pink blush spread across Emerson's cheeks as she opened her green eyes and stared up at Daryl as everything in her tightened and she gasped out his name. Daryl wasn't too far behind her, a few quick thrusts and he let himself go, buried deep inside her. His head dropped down as he rode it out and he lazily mouthed at her collar bone for a moment before he lifted his head and stared deep into her eyes. "I love you," he whispered quietly before he dropped his lips down on hers and pressed a soft, chaste kiss onto her already kiss swollen lips.

"Are you just saying that because you're still inside me?" Emerson asked, her tone teasing.

"Nah," Daryl said as he pulled out of her and rolled onto his back. "I'm saying it because it's true." He extended his arm to the side and smiled when Emerson rolled into him, draped an arm over his stomach and rested her head on his chest. He allowed his hand to rest on her shoulder and kissed her sweaty, messed up, red hair. "I love you," he whispered again. He wanted to make sure that she understood what he was saying. There was no _think _about it. This time he knew, and he wanted to make sure that she knew it too.

Emerson smiled to herself for a moment. She knew that Daryl couldn't see the smile and that was okay. She turned her head and pressed a kiss on the scar on his chest. "I love you too," she whispered. And though Daryl couldn't see the smile on her lips, he could feel it on his chest and hear it in her voice.

He nodded, his arms tightening around the young woman laying against him in his arms, he was the luckiest son of a bitch on the earth. And it felt good.

They fell asleep like that, naked and wrapped up in each other's arms with the door locked. They didn't wake up with the sun like they usually did. Instead they woke up when Matt started hammering on the door, demanding that they wake up. Emerson groaned and threw one of her arms over her eyes to shield them from the sunlight. "We're getting up, Matty!" she called through the door. "Don't worry." Daryl chuckled when instead of getting out of bed she rolled over and buried her face in his chest. "I don't want to leave here," she whispered to him, he could practically hear the pout in her voice. He knew that she wasn't talking about the bed when she said that she didn't want to leave, she was talking about his arms. He liked that.

"Then don't," he told her with a soft smile. She lifted her head off his chest and stared at him as if she had no idea what he meant by that. Daryl took a deep breath, there would be no going back from this, he knew it. "Marry me?" he asked her.

"Are you serious?" Emerson asked, sitting up so that she was straddling Daryl and raising her eyebrows at the man. She wasn't sure, he might have been joking with her. Continuing the joke from weeks ago when Matt had asked him if he was going to marry her. "We can't just do that," she told him, shaking her head. "Get married?"

"Never been more serious in my life," Daryl told her. "And sure we can. After everything that has gone on in the past few weeks, losing Lori. The vote about Merle. I learned that nothing's certain. We could lose anyone at any time. And the one thing I'm absolutely sure of is that I don't want to lose you without makin' damn sure that every single person in this fucking, god forsaken world knows just how I feel about you."

Emerson stared at him for a moment and Daryl was sure that he could see tears building in her eyes, but she looked away before he could be sure. She reached one of her hands up to her face and brushed at her cheeks. "I could have done without the cussing," she told him, still looking away from him. Daryl lifted his hands to her hips and gave them a gentle squeeze, silently reminding her that she hadn't answered his question yet. She turned back and smiled back down at him before she nodded. "Yes," she said softly. "Okay."

"Okay?" Daryl asked, boosting himself onto his elbows so that his face was closer to Emerson's. She nodded at him again and he leaned up even more, closing the distance between them so that he could kiss her. "Okay," he said with a nod when he pulled away. "We're getting married." He paused, "I'm getting married," he said slowly, incredulously.

Emerson giggled and pressed another kiss against his lips. "That's something you never thought you'd say isn't it?" She asked when she pulled away from him. Daryl nodded, he had never expected to say something like that. Emerson smiled at him and giggled as she pressed one more kiss against his lips, her hands framing his face, "Me neither," she admitted before she rolled off of him so that she could get dressed and go tell Matt the news.

-.-.-.-.-

Emerson would have been happy to shout about what she and Daryl had discussed from the top of the school, but the announcement died on her lips when she walked into the common room and caught sight of Rick sitting alone at the table. "Rick!" she gasped quietly before she moved across the room and to the table. She didn't think about his personal space or scaring him, she moved around the table quickly and wrapped her arms around the older man's shoulders, squeezing him tightly for a minute. There was a few seconds when Rick flinched, when his body tensed at Emerson's touch, but before she could even consider pulling away and giving him space he had sunk into the embrace, one of his hands lifted off the table so that he could grasp her hand. "Oh Rick," she whispered quietly. "We were worried about you. Where have you been?"

Rick was quiet for a moment and Emerson wasn't sure if she should expect an answer from him or not. "Clearing," he croaked, his voice cracking after so many days of not using it. He cleared his throat and shook his head. "I've been clearing." Emerson tightened her arms around him and asked him what he had been clearing. "The woods," he said slowly. "The buildings. I made it to the green houses. There are still plants there. And vegetables, and seeds. I found them. I'll show you." He struggled to get out of his seat, but Emerson shook her head and tightened her grip on him, stopping him from going anywhere. "Emerson," Rick warned, his voice low.

"No Rick," Emerson said, shaking her head. "You're not going to show me, not yet. You have a son here and a daughter. They need their father. So what you're going to do is you're going to eat and you're going to take a bath, you need to wash that blood off of you. Give me your clothes, I'll wash them. You're going to clean yourself up and spend some time with your children. We buried their mother yesterday and you weren't even there for that. That's what you need to take care of." She waited until he had nodded silently and she was sure that he wasn't going to go anywhere before she unwrapped her arms from around him and moved over to the stove in the kitchen area. "How do you feel about chicken noodle soup?" she asked him quietly. Rick nodded, silent. "Okay," she said with a soft, gentle smile, "it'll be done when your bath is done. Change into new clothes and bring these ones back." Rick nodded again and he got up from the table to head toward the door. He took a small detour so that he could walk over to Emerson and silently reach out to grasp her shoulder in his hand. She stared at him and nodded, she understood what he was trying to say. Rick nodded again and then left the room.

He didn't even acknowledge Daryl who had been standing in the doorway watching the entire scene. Daryl watched as Emerson started to boil the water for Rick's soup. It was mid morning, not the time for soup, but she figured that he could use some comfort food. And when they were living out of cans she had very few options. Daryl moved quietly into the kitchen and wrapped his arms around Emerson's waist from behind. She jumped at the touch and he chuckled, "Easy," he whispered as he nosed along the skin beneath her ear. "It's just me."

Emerson relaxed into his arms automatically and he could hear the relieved laughter bubbling in her voice, "What are you doing?" she asked him quietly as she moved away from him so that she could start to open the can.

"Watching you," Daryl answered bluntly. Emerson turned and looked at him with raised eyebrows. Daryl shrugged, they had decided to get married that morning. He figured that meant that he didn't have to hide that sometimes he just liked watching her anymore. "I was watching you with Rick," Daryl admitted as Emerson turned away from him and back to the can on the counter. "And it got me thinking. You were good with him." Daryl paused, "You'd be a great mother," he admitted quietly.

"Oh no you don't," Emerson told him, turning away from the can to shoot him a stern look. "We're not even married yet. And even if we were I'm pretty sure I couldn't have a baby, not now anyway. And the group already has one baby, we don't need anymore."

"That's not what I meant," Daryl told her softly. "I meant for Little Ass Kicker." Emerson's green eyes snapped up to study Daryl's face. Daryl shrugged, "She's gonna need someone soon," he told her. "Hell she needs a mama now. And you're good with things like that. I've seen you with Matt and Carl even, and now Rick. You're good at this. You'd be a great mother."

Emerson shook her head sadly as she emptied the can of soup into the now boiling water. "Lori would have been a great mother," she told him, her tone flat. "All I can be is a good substitute. Besides," she turned to look out the door toward where everyone else's rooms were. "That little baby is going to have so many people that want to love on her that she's not gonna know what to do with it. She won't need me as much as you think she will." Daryl wanted to argue with her, but it was clear that Emerson didn't want to hear it. Besides, other people were beginning to walk into the room.

"Em!" Maggie cheered as she and Beth ran over to the redhead and pulled her away from the stove so that they could take turns wrapping her in a hug. "We saw Matt in the hallway he just told us, congratulations!" Emerson bit her lip, her head reeling at the fast change of emotions before she grinned at the two girls who were still hugging her and rolled her eyes, making some comment about how Matt was stealing her thunder.

"But it's great!" Beth told her, "At least I think it is. After everything you've been through, both of you. After everything that the group has been through. It'll be nice to celebrate something for a change. When are you going to do it?"

Emerson shrugged and shook her head, she and Daryl hadn't decided on that yet. She turned to look at Daryl for help. He was grinning at their interaction with Glenn standing next to him with an arm around his shoulders. "As soon as we can," Daryl said, answering Beth's question when it became clear that Emerson had no idea what to say. Beth squealed and jumped up and down before she asked if she could help Emerson pick out the dress.

"It's not like we can really go shopping for a dress," Emerson reminded the young girl. "I hadn't really thought of what I was going to wear yet. I wasn't really planning for something like this when I packed the cabin up."

She heard laughter from the door and she looked up to see Carol making her way into the room. The redhead shook her head and smiled at the older woman, from the look on her face Matt had told her what was going on too. "I'm sure that you might be able to find a dress in one of the dorm rooms," Carol told her. "But no matter what you wear it won't matter, he'll think you look gorgeous." Emerson blushed as Carol got closer and wrapped her arms around both Emerson and Daryl. "Congratulations."

"For what?" a voice asked from the door and everyone turned to see Rick standing there. His bath had taken less time than Emerson had thought it would. But he was clean, and he was wearing clean clothes. And he had even brought his dirty clothes for her so she couldn't complain. "Congratulations for what?" he asked when no one would answer his question.

"It's nothing," Emerson said as she broke free of the group surrounding her and Daryl and got a bowl for Rick's soup. Everyone else was staring at the man in wide-eyed surprise, they hadn't known he was back yet. She poured the soup in the bowl and brought it over to the man before she guided him toward the table. "It's really nothing that you need to worry about," she told him.

"What is it?" Rick asked, not allowing her to avoid his question. The leader glanced toward Daryl, "What's going on?" he asked his friend, trusting that Daryl, at least, would answer him.

Daryl shifted back and forth, uncomfortable, for a moment before he answered. "I asked Emerson to marry me," he said softly, unable to make eye contact with his friend. "And she said yes." Rick stared for a moment, his eyes darting between Daryl and Emerson before he got up from the table and practically ran out of the room. Emerson called after him, but he ignored her and when she tried to go after him Daryl caught her in his arms and refused to let her go. "Leave him be," Daryl ordered her. "The man just lost his wife, this can't be easy for him."

Emerson understood that and she was about to yell at Daryl for telling Rick about their decision when the leader walked back into the kitchen. He walked toward Emerson and Daryl with a new purpose. "Rick," Emerson whispered softly when the man was standing in front of her. "I'm so sorry. This can't be easy for you. We didn't mean to cause you pain. Just -"

Rick cut her off by reaching out and grabbing her hand. He held it in the air, palm up for a moment, just staring at it, before he placed something on her palm. Emerson couldn't look at it right away, but the gasp from Carol made her eyes lower to the object in her hand. It was a ring, a simple gold band with a small, but beautiful diamond.

Lori's engagement ring.

She shook her head and tried to give the ring back to him. "Rick I can't take this," she told him. "I won't take this."

"She would have wanted you to have it," Rick told her. "She would have wanted someone else to use it. She had that baby to prove to us that we can still hope. And that what you and Daryl have," he paused, looking between the two of them, "hope. She would have liked that."

"She would have wanted Judith to have the ring," Emerson told him, telling him his daughter's name for the first time. "She would have wanted your daughter to have it. Your daughter is the hope, not me. Not Daryl. But Lori's daughter."

Rick shook his head again, "Then you can hold onto it until Judith is old enough to wear it, when it fits her. Until then, as far as I'm concerned, it's yours. I want you two to have it." He reached forward and bent Emerson's fingers, closing her hand around the ring, and silencing anymore arguments from the redhead.

"Okay," was all she managed to say around the lump that was forming in her throat. "Okay." Rick stared at her for a moment longer before he nodded and muttered something about going to find Carl. Daryl wrapped his arms around Emerson and turned her around so that her face was buried in his chest when she started to cry.

Not for the first time since everything had gone down, Emerson had no idea if the tears sliding down her cheeks were from happiness or from her heart breaking.

* * *

Author's note:  
Fluff, fluff, fluff. I felt bad because The Walking Dead is over until October. And because the season finale was a bit of a let down.  
So I gave you fluff. Did you guys enjoy it? I'm not sure how I do with fluff.  
Don't get me wrong, it was fun to write, but a bit cheesy too. So I don't know. Hopefully, it was good.  
Because there's more fluff coming at you in the next chapter too.  
Anyway, thank you for stopping by and reading this chapter. You should go review it ... I love reviews. They make me really happy.  
Special thanks goes to: _Jessicavail, Ivella21, theshrewdravenclaw, Black-Wolf-92, LiliAnnJackson, Ravenclaw Slytherin, curls90, MAR76, jdedmom, _and _TheQuietBeing_ who added this story to their **Favorites List**.  
And to: _I got mugged by a penguin, theshrewdravenclaw, AWriterInTrying, Julietta17, Sangolchimaru, bubble-star, livyundead11, Black-Wolf-92, DeviousMidget, LiliAnnJackson, NotSoAngelAnymore, Ravenclaw Slytherin, curls90, alwaysandforever15, stefaniewilliams32, SimplyLovelyChan, Skmarie, im a k, jdedmom, jessicajamesschultz, TheQuietBeing, _and _alwaysxlove_ for adding this story to their **Alerts List**.  
But as always, the **BIGGEST **of special thanks goes to those of you who **REVIEWED** on the last chapter. You guys seriously make my day sometimes. So **THANK YOU**:  
**piratejessieswaby: **Hey dear! I hope this chapter didn't let you down! And our man made it through the season finale! Hopefully they won't kill him off in season four either! Thank you so much for your review!  
**tonitangible: **You are so sweet! Seriously! I squealed and flailed around when I read your review! I am so glad that you're enjoying this story so much! And I'm really happy that it inspired you to write your own Walking Dead fanfictions! Maybe I'll stop by and read them sometime!  
I'm glad that I'm keeping you hooked! And you're more than welcome for writing about Emerson. I should be the one thanking you for reading and reviewing! I really hope you enjoyed this chapter as well!  
**middlekertz: **I loved your excitement! Like seriously loved that you were so happy to get to ask questions! Did you get the answers? Did they make you feel any better (especially my answer to the second question). Thank you so much for reading and I hope that you enjoyed this chapter as well!  
**FanFicGirl10: **I didn't like writing about Emerson pushing Daryl away either. But it seemed realistic. It seemed like the reaction a normal person would have. And yes! They said they loved each other and now they're getting married because I'm a bit of a fan of fluff. Even though I'm not sure how well I write it.  
Unfortunately Merle is going to have to be mean in this story ... well not mean, just kind of an asshole. I'm trying to make a point (in this chapter especially) that Merle Dixon isn't evil, he just did what he had to do. I love Merle too. (If you read my other WD story you'll see that I have a soft spot for the redneck.)  
**mischieflover: **I don't know how you missed the chapter! Fanfiction was playing games with you! "Someone's playing games!" (Sorry ... I get really excited when I can use Rick quotes in real life.)  
I'm sorry that you were watching that episode with a lot of people who don't understand. I don't know how you didn't cry even with all that going on. I tried not to cry and it happened anyway. I'm really glad that you enjoyed that I put Lori's speech to Carl in there. I wasn't a huge fan of her, either, but I feel like that speech was redeeming for her. She realized that she hadn't been the best mother in the world, but I think her intentions had always been good.  
As for the last chapter I'm glad you liked it even though it made you happy and sad at the same time. And if you loved that they said the L word in the last chapter I have a feeling that you enjoyed all the fluff in this one. Am I right?  
Thank you so much for your review dear! And I really do hope that you enjoyed this chapter!  
**HeartyJessica: **Hello dear! Thank you so much for your review! I'm glad you loved the last chapter and I hope that you liked this one as well! Like I said before, Daryl and Emerson probably won't have kids ... at least not in the conventional way. But there might come a time when the two of them are like parents to someone.  
**theshrewdravenclaw: **I'm so glad that you've been enjoying this story! Praise is always nice to hear ... er read. And I'm sorry that I helped to destroy your feelings! I hope this chapter helped to put some of them back together.  
**Readergirl66: **Did I make you misty eyed with this chapter too? I had some fun with it. And I'm working some of my writer's magic to make these two have a happy ending. I think they deserve it. I hope that you enjoyed this chapter! (And the one I have coming up for you guys!)  
**Franne: **No! No going crazy! No going crazy! And how amazing was the first episode? Am I right? Has season three started in Belgium yet? Or are you cheating and watching more episodes online? I'm glad that you enjoyed the last chapter and I hope that you liked this one as well! And I hope that this chapter helped you to understand a bit of why Em wants to find Merle.  
**Asalija: **Aww! The season finale wasn't so bad was it? It was a bit of a let down actually, at least for me. I'm glad that Team Prison was okay, but come on ... wtf governor?  
And yeah, I did take my time updating this chapter. I'm sorry for that, but at least I didn't leave this one on another cliffhanger, did I? And I'm cruel, am I? :p That's nice to hear, I've never been called that by a reader before! And I'm so glad that you enjoyed their confessions, I figured that after forty chapters it was time for them to say it. It was time.  
I didn't update as early as I wanted, but I hope that I didn't fail to deliver you some happy fan fiction therapy! (Fingers crossed that you enjoyed this chapter!)  
**Dalonega Noquisi: **I loved that part too! It just felt right. Daryl wouldn't go and just outright say that he loved her! There had to be some confusion, and hesitation there. It just fit, and I think that it was really cute. I like cute ... and zombies. I like zombies too.  
**DBugMom: **Aww! look at you! Making me blush and flail again with another amazing review! Daw! I can't even handle it! Remember a while back when we were talking about how we needed a wedding ... well now we're going to have one. Are you excited? I am. And I'm glad that Daryl realized he was in love too! It's been a long time coming, if you ask me! I hope you enjoyed this chapter as well as the others my dear!  
**livyundead11: **You read it in one sitting? I love those people! They make me so happy that I was able to keep them hooked and interested for so long! Thank you so much for your review! I hope that you enjoyed this chapter too! (What has been your favorite part so far?)  
**Ravenclaw Slytherin: **I'm glad that you like my story! I liked your review! Thank you so much for reading! And for reviewing! I hope that you enjoyed this chapter as well!  
**Guest (1): **I did leave it there. I'm a cruel, "bad amazing writer!" I'm sorry. But at least I made sure that this chapter didn't end on a cliffhanger. I could have ... there was a spot where I could have ended it. But I didn't, I was nice this time. Nice and fluffy. And I hope that you enjoyed it dear!  
**bashfyl: **I'm glad that you're all caught up! And I'm really happy that you enjoyed the last chapter. I hope that you enjoyed this one too. Part of why Emerson wants to find Merle is explained in this chapter. There's a bit more, I suppose, but you guys will have to wait a while before you find out the rest. Thank you so much for reading and reviewing! You guys have no idea how much reviews mean to me!  
**kisitechie: **Oh! You are such a sweetheart! You'd rather watch this story than watch the real Walking Dead? That is one of the most amazing compliments I've ever gotten. You have no idea!  
So thank you for reading and reviewing. And I'm so glad that you think I have "general awesomeness and superb skill." That makes me really happy!  
Well that's all I've got for now. You guys are **AMAZING** and I adore you more than is probably humanly possible. Thank you so much for reading!  
Until next time, happy reading!  
Hugs and kisses,  
Chloe Jane.


	42. Chapter Forty-One

Disclaimer: I do not own the Walking Dead, although I'm completely obsessed with it and wished I did. Emerson, however, I do own.

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Oh my God!  
I have to apologize! Like **BIG TIME**.  
This wasn't supposed to happen.  
But work, and final exams (both my final exams and my students that I had to grade)  
and real life and exercise (I joined a gym and am kicking ass there on a daily basis)  
kept getting in the way.  
And then to top it all off my future sister in law who is helping plan my wedding  
flew in from Texas for a week and a half. This is the only time the two of us are  
going to be in the same state until the wedding. So when she was here there was  
no time for anything besides my wedding plans.  
Which kind of put a damper on my plans for the Dixon wedding.

But it's here now! Fluffy and wonderful. And entirely sweet.  
(it's kind of my apology to you guys for being such a b*tch and keeping to from you for so long.

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Hopefully I haven't lost everybody.  
To those of you that are still here:  
Enjoy

* * *

Chapter Forty-One:

Beth was an unstoppable whirlwind when it came to the wedding plans. Within two weeks and very few decisions on Emerson or Daryl's part, Beth had planned their entire wedding. Down to the very last detail - that the couple could not sleep in the same room on the night before the wedding. Emerson had joked as Maggie dragged her into her and Glenn's suite that this wouldn't be a big deal. That she was sure she could handle a night away from Daryl. But she had woken up, shaking with fear, more than a few times during the night. And she missed Daryl's arms wrapped around her waist, and his slow breathing that told her that everything was okay. She must not have looked like she had gotten much sleep because Beth had gasped when the teenager walked into the suite the next morning. "Is it that bad?" Emerson asked as she sat up on the couch. "This is your fault, you know? I would have slept just fine if I was able to sleep with Daryl."

"He can't see the bride before the wedding," Beth hissed as she dropped the cardboard box she had been carrying onto the floor. Emerson mentioned that the old traditions didn't really matter anymore, she brought up the fact that her father wasn't going to give her away. And that there wasn't going to be a honeymoon or a cake or any of the perks of an old wedding. Beth rolled her eyes, she had been putting up with these arguments for the past two weeks. "Yes," the blonde said as she started to unpack the cardboard box. "But you are still a bride. And he still can't see you before the wedding."

"Okay," Emerson acquiesced as she stood from the couch and moved over to the table so that she could see what Beth was unpacking. The teenager had been busy since Emerson and Daryl announced that they wanted a wedding. She had gone through all the dorm rooms looking for makeup that would match Emerson's skin tone, hair supplies, and most importantly a dress. She had found everything she was looking for and then some. She had even found some nice dresses that fit all the other women and some clothes for the men (though she hadn't let Emerson see those). The box had Beth and Maggie's dresses and Emerson's dress as well as make-up, some flowers Beth had taken from the greenhouses, makeup, hairspray, bobby pins, rubber bands, and a pair of pretty silver high heeled shoes that Emerson had a feeling were going to fit her feet. "I won't wear those," Emerson told the younger girl. "I'd rather go barefoot."

Beth turned to look at her for a moment before she sighed, the look on her face clearly said that she thought it was ridiculous that Emerson didn't want to wear the shoes, but she didn't argue. "Fine," she said, "it's a good thing that you and I have the same size feet then, huh?" Emerson sighed happily, glad that it was the end of the discussion. Beth handed her a men's button down shirt, "Put this on," she ordered. "We're going to do your hair and makeup before you put on your dress and I won't have you messing it all up by pulling a shirt over your head." Emerson rolled her eyes, but grabbed the shirt and headed toward the bathroom. She banged on Maggie and Glenn's bedroom door on her way past it. She yelled at them to wake up, if she was up and suffering then they should be too.

They were sitting on the couch when Emerson walked back into the living room in a pair of Daryl's boxers and the button down shirt. Glenn grinned at her as he unwrapped his arm from around Maggie's shoulders and stood up, "There's the bride," he said, laughing as Emerson ducked away from him so that he couldn't pinch her cheek. "I was hoping to get a look at you before I went over to see Daryl. I bet he's freaking out right now."  
"Yeah well that's a compliment," Emerson bantered back, her tone sarcastic and a pout finding its way onto her face as Beth forced her down into a chair at the small table. "I've always wanted to marry a guy who freaks out at the thought of marrying me. That's the perfect kind of guy."

Glenn grinned at her and shook his head, "You know that he's happy about this," he told her as he pressed a kiss onto her forehead before he left the room. He paused at the door and turned to look at the three women in the room, "Two hours?" he asked Beth, glancing at the pocket watch in his hand. Beth pulled away from Emerson and studied her for a moment before she turned back to Glenn and told him that he had better make it two and a half. "Gotcha," Glenn said with a nod before he really left the room. Emerson rolled her eyes at Maggie, she didn't think that she looked that bad that Beth needed an extra half an hour to make her look good.

Over the next two and a half hours Beth fussed over Emerson. She wasn't the only one, Maggie had helped. Carol had come in to help. Even Lindsey and Jamie had stopped by to talk about how good Emerson was going to look and how great it was that there was going to be a wedding. Emerson was just feeling impatient, Beth had already ruled that she wasn't allowed to look in the mirror until she was completely ready. So she had let the girl do her makeup, and her hair, and help her into the dress she had never seen before and then stand back and study her for almost five minutes before the blonde teenager announced that she was ready and she could go look in the bathroom mirror.

Beth ducked into Maggie and Glenn's bedroom to change into her dress while Emerson made her way to the mirror. The blonde wanted to give Emerson some time to herself before everything began. Emerson closed her eyes before she got to the mirror and took a deep, calming breath, forcing herself to relax before she opened her eyes. When she did, she gasped. She was sure that she had never looked more beautiful than she did at that moment.

Beth had worked wonders on her hair - it was soft and shiny and looked like she took much better care of it than she did. It was gathered into a purposefully messy up do on the back of her head, held in place with hair spray and lots of bobby pins with curls escaping out of it. Her bangs were side swept over her right eye. And there was a double stranded, white lace ribbon headband tied around her head with a silver silk lily on the right side above her ear. Beth had lamented the fact that they couldn't find a veil on the college campus (not that the fact was really surprising) but Emerson thought that this headband looked better on her than a veil would have looked. Her makeup was simple and natural looking, her eyelashes had been elongated with mascara and her lips were tinted a pretty pink. Her cheeks were pink and rosy, but Emerson couldn't remember Beth using blush, this must have been her own excitement about today.

The blonde had outdone herself when it came to the dress. Unsurprisingly there was a shortage of floor length white dresses on the campus. But somehow, Beth had found the perfect one for Emerson. The dress was white and knee length, it was made out of a floaty, chiffon material that draped from a cummerbund, pleated waistline. It was sleeveless, but the top was almost like a turtle neck, the collar of the dress was above her collarbones. It didn't reveal any cleavage, but it was still sexy while being able to be sweet. The back was Emerson's favorite part, it had a keyhole in the back. Beth must have liked it too because she had decided to do the up do just so that she wouldn't cover up the small bit of skin that showed on Emerson's back. She was still staring at her reflection when Maggie walked out of her bedroom and came to stand behind the redhead. "You look beautiful," she told her as she wrapped her arms around the shorter girl's shoulders and hugged her from behind. "He's going to fall so in love with you."

Emerson smiled as she glanced at Maggie over her shoulder, "I kind of hope that he's already in love with me," she joked. Maggie smiled, Emerson was trying to be her usually sarcastic self, but it was clear that she was nervous. That surprised Maggie, she had seen Emerson take down Walkers without batting an eye, but the thought of getting married to a man who clearly wanted to marry her scared the redhead.

"It's going to be fine," she whispered, giving the redhead a gentle squeeze. "Everything's going to be fine. You guys love each other and nothing is really going to change. It's going to be the same, you guys aren't going to have to change anything if that's what you're worried about." Emerson stared at her friend for a moment before she nodded, Maggie was right, nothing was going to change. "Okay?" Maggie asked as she watched the redhead calm down in front of her. "Good, let's go get you married."

Beth handed her a long stemmed bouquet of white lilies from the green house and gave the redhead's shoulder a gentle squeeze, "It's going to be perfect," Beth whispered as they started to walk out of the room. Emerson asked the blonde how she knew that. Beth shrugged, "Because I know that the two of you are perfect," she told her confidently.

-.-.-.-.-.-

Daryl had laughed when he had walked onto the quad to see what Lindsey and Jamie had done. They had pulled chairs out of the dorm buildings and lined them up in front of the building. There weren't many chairs, just enough for twelve people. Hershel was going to be the one marrying them and Daryl and Emerson weren't going to be sitting down. He was surprised when Rick walked out of the dorm building and sat down in one of the chairs. His friend had given them Lori's ring, but he had figured that a wedding would be too much for the man to handle. Soon everyone else walked out of the dorm building, when he saw Maggie and Beth taking their seats he knew that it was almost time, that Emerson was going to be walking out any moment now. Beth gave him a pointed look before she raised her hand in the air, using one finger to signal that he needed to turn away from the building and face Hershel.

He did as she wanted, the young blonde had worked very hard to organize this and the last thing he wanted to do was ruin it for anyone. He wondered when he would know that he could turn around, but Beth had taken care of that too. It was quiet at first, but then he heard them. The people in the audience humming the wedding march. He turned around, laughing at the group, but the laugh died on his lips when he caught sight of her.

She looked amazing. And she looked happy, happier than he had seen her in a long time. She was walking down the aisle with her arm looped through her brother's. Everyone was looking at her and Daryl was sure that there were a few women who might have tears in their eyes. But Emerson didn't seem to notice, her bright green eyes were locked on his as Matt continued to lead her toward him. The younger boy brought her up to Daryl and kissed her cheek before he placed her hand in Daryl's. He and the redhead both laughed at the young boy, it was clear that Beth had made him practice at some point. "You look beautiful," Daryl whispered to her as they turned toward Hershel. The older man read some verses from the Bible, but Daryl couldn't honestly tell anyone what Hershel had said, he was too busy staring at the redhead in front of him who had somehow been persuaded that she wanted to marry him.

When it came to the vows Emerson had gone first. She smiled at him and Daryl could see the tears shining in her eyes before she even began speaking. She shook her head at him and laughed when he stuck his tongue out at her playfully. "There aren't many people that can honestly say that they met their one and only at the worst possible time." Daryl laughed at her and she held up her hand in front of her face, "Don't look at me," she whispered much to the amusement of the people watching. "I was literally stuck in a tree in the middle of the woods," she continued, still hiding her face from Daryl with her hand. Daryl chuckled and lifted his hand so that he could pull Emerson's hand away from her face. He held it down at waist level so she couldn't raise it. "And when you came to my _rescue_," she continued, playfully sneering at the word, "all I could think was that you were insane and you were going to steal from me." Daryl chuckled and Emerson shook her head, "And you were crazy and you did steal from me, just not in the way I expected. You were crazy enough to stay with me, crazy enough to want me, crazy enough to love me. And you stole away the loneliness I didn't know I felt, most of my fear, and all of my heart." She sniffed back tears and wrenched one of her hands out of Daryl's grasp so that she could wipe the tears off her cheeks. "And that was cheesy," she said with a laugh, "but every bit of it was true. I love you, Daryl Dixon, and while I can't promise that things are going to be easy from now on I promise to do everything I can to help. I promise to love you, to honor you, and to cherish you for the rest of our lives. The truth is that I was lost before I met you, and I would be lost without you. So, from this day forth I will put you first, love you the most, and bring you with me wherever I go, until death do us part."

Daryl chuckled and shook his head, "And you expect me to follow that?" he asked the beautiful redhead in front of him. "How am I supposed to do that, huh?" Emerson shrugged and whispered that she was sure he'd find a way. "I never saw myself doing the relationship and marriage thing," he admitted, starting his vows in a way that made Emerson roll her eyes playfully at him. "But when it came to you I don't think I had a choice, I want to be a better man for you, Em - the kind of man you deserve." He paused for a moment, swallowing around a lump in his throat. He had never been the type to be mushy, but he knew what he wanted to say to Emerson. The question was whether or not he'd be able to get it out. "And though I never thought I'd end up getting married, especially after all that's happened, I know it's the right thing to do and I feel as though I'm already your husband and that I have been for a very long time." Emerson sniffed and reached up to wipe more tears from her eyes. "You not only taught me how to love, but you forced me to do it. You came into my life like a tornado and changed everything, forcing me to adapt and to feel things I had never felt before. I will never be the man you deserve, but I promise to spend every day of the rest of our lives trying my damnedest to be. We don't know how long we have in this world, and like I said before, I don't want to lose you without making damn sure that every single person in this fucking world knows exactly how I feel about you."

"Again," Emerson whispered, repeating the words she had used after Daryl's proposal, "I could have done without the cussing."

Daryl chuckled and shook his head, "Can't even let me finish without interrupting. I was trying to be sweet, woman." The audience laughed as Emerson nodded and composed her face into a look of casual interest. Daryl took a deep breath, "This is me," he told her as he pulled Lori's ring out of his pocket and grabbed Emerson's left hand so that he could slip the ring onto her ring finger. "This is me asking you to be my lover, my partner, and my better half for the rest of our lives and for whatever the hell comes after that."  
Emerson grinned up at him, "It's probably a good thing that I went first," she whispered through her tears. "Because there's no way I could have followed that." Daryl grinned at her and reached out so that he could wipe at the tears slipping down her cheeks. He wasn't too big of a man to not admit that he could feel tears prickling in his eyes as well.

"Well," Hershel said with a grin, "I suppose there isn't much more to say other than that I now pronounce you husband and wife." He turned to smile at Daryl, "You may kiss your bride."

Daryl let out a whoop of excitement as he surged forward, one hand finding the small of Emerson's back while the other cradled her cheek. He dipped her back before he kissed her. The group in the chairs in front of them cheered and clapped as Daryl finally righted the girl in his arms, but instead of letting go of her he scooped her up in his arms and carried her down the aisle and toward the dorm building.

-.-.-.-.-.-

There was a party after the wedding. It wasn't like the traditional receptions of the past - there was no big meal, or cake, or pictures, or DJ with a dance floor. But Daryl and Emerson were pelted with rose petals from the greenhouses when he jokingly carried her over the threshold of the common room, and there were lots of hugs and congratulations, and Emerson threw her bouquet of lilies right at Maggie's face - forcing the woman to catch the flowers. And they even got a dance, Daryl would have been able to do without the dance, but Emerson wanted it. She had looked up at him with wide, green, pleading eyes and he couldn't say no. Beth sang the song, Daryl didn't recognize it neither did Emerson, but as they danced and Emerson allowed him to spin her into his arms Daryl decided that this was his favorite song in the world.

Once their first dance was finished Emerson smiled up at him as Glenn brought a guitar to her. "I've got something for you," she whispered as she moved toward a stool to sit down. She smiled up at him for a moment before she started strumming the guitar. This was a song Daryl recognized, it had come on the radio occasionally before the world went to shit.

"I'm doing alright,  
Was only driving by.  
Thought I'd say hello,  
I was hoping you were home.  
Since you've never called,  
Have you thought at all?  
Is there anybody new?  
Cause don't know what I'd do without you.

Cause I'd be lost forever if you slipped away.  
Blue eyes you're the reason for my change.  
Blue eyes you're the reason for my change."

Daryl smiled as she continued to sing the song. It wasn't a traditional song that someone would play at a wedding, but he knew why she had chosen it. He nodded at her when the song was done, "I don't know what I'd do without you either," he told her quietly.

"Enough!" Glenn called out jokingly. "I can't take it anymore. You guys are too cute and it's not normal. No more!" Emerson laughed at their friend and moved closer to him so that she could press a kiss to his cheek. Daryl watched her, he was sure that he had never seen her look happier than she had that day. If he had ever been nervous about getting married, about making everything more official he wasn't nervous anymore. It was the right thing to do, that much was obvious from the way her eyes lit up when she looked at him. She loved him. And now she was his. Everyone they met would notice the ring on her finger. Even Merle would notice it.

He tensed when his mind went there. He hadn't been aware that that was where his mind was going. But it was then that he realized that he had decided what he wanted to do in regards to his brother. He wanted to find him, he wanted to bring him back to the group. If only to show him that he and the other guys in Darren's group hadn't broken Emerson. That she was safe and happy and had managed to fall in love. He wanted to prove to his brother that he had survived without him, that he had thrived without him even. And that where Merle had hurt Emerson, Daryl had managed to help her, to fix her, and to make her happy.

Emerson glanced up at him from where she was dancing with Matt, she smiled at him, an excited glint in her green eyes. Daryl felt a smile find its way onto his own lips as he nodded toward her. He felt someone come to stand behind him and he turned to see Rick standing behind him watching Emerson as well. Rick nodded when he caught Daryl's eye and reached out and clasped Daryl's shoulder. "You did well," Rick told him, his eyes landing on Emerson again. "Today. You made her happy and you proved to her how much you love her. You did well." Daryl nodded, he was going to say thank you, but it looked like Rick wasn't done yet. "But you won't be able to keep her safe. You won't be able to protect her from all the pain in this world. No one would be able to. You'll never be able to keep the promises you make to her. Never."

Daryl glanced at his friend and silently raised his eyebrows at the man. Rick nodded. The leader was aware that what he had said was depressing, but he had felt the need to say it. To warn Daryl against what had happened to him and Lori. Daryl had been there throughout everything that had happened, he had seen what happened to Rick and Lori. But he hadn't been on the inside, he didn't know how much it hurt to watch someone you love suffer and have no idea how to fix them. He didn't want his friend to go through the same pain he had.

Daryl seemed to realize that because instead of getting angry at Rick he reached out and clasped Rick on his shoulder. "I'm sorry," he whispered quietly. There was nothing else for him to say, nothing that needed to be said. Rick understood, he nodded and the two men stood there silently watching the new bride for a few minutes before Daryl spoke up. "I want to go find my brother," he told Rick quietly. "Emerson offered to help me find him and we took a vote when you were out at the greenhouses. It was a tie, but I hadn't voted yet. I couldn't. They agreed to give me time. But I want to go find him. I need to find him." He stopped there and watched his friend quietly, he wasn't going to beg, he wasn't even going to ask for permission, but he wanted Rick to approve.

Rick studied him for a moment before he glanced back at Emerson. The redhead wasn't dancing anymore, she was sitting on the couch watching Beth dance with Matt as she held Judith in her arms. "She voted to go find him, didn't she?" Rick asked, nodding toward Emerson. "She wants to find your brother, even after everything he did to her. After everything that happened." Daryl nodded and told Rick that the girl had been the first one to vote to find Merle. She hadn't just offered to find him, she wanted to find him. Rick nodded, "That's her though, isn't it? That's just who she is." He wasn't surprised, that's who Emerson had been since she joined the group. Always the first to volunteer for the jobs that no one else wanted to do.

Daryl nodded, smiling as he glanced at Emerson, his strong yet damaged girl. "That's just her."

Rick nodded, for a moment Daryl thought that the leader was agreeing with him about Emerson, but then Rick spoke. "Okay," he said with another nod as he turned to look at Daryl. "Okay," he repeated. "Tomorrow we'll start looking for your brother."

* * *

Author's Note:  
I am horrible! And I am so sorry!  
And hopefully I didn't lose freaking everybody with my like three week long hiatus!  
I am so sorry guys! That is the last time that I do that to you!  
Real life and wedding plans and work just all took over my life and I barely had time to think let alone update this story.  
**Please say you forgive me?**  
Special thanks goes to: _TheSpazChik, setsuna1415, FyreLiLi, It's a story, harley001, xXMegers17Xx, hannahmom16, Mione788, magical origami, eh089614, Xomgitzyooh, _and _darkdrag215_ who added this story to their **Favorites List.**  
And to: _FyreLiLi, It's a story, Miss Bear, WillowTheMischiefMaker, Faith NightGrace, lovelivebelieve, xXMegers17Xx, Sonatica, hannahmom16, Mione788, magical origami, eh089614, kinomae, _and _cheryl84x_ who added this story to their **Alerts List.  
**But as always the **BIGGEST **of **SPECIAL THANKS** goes to those of you who reviewed on the last chapter. So here we go:  
**Piratejessieswaby: **I'm glad you enjoyed the last chapter and I hope you liked this one too despite all the fluff! And don't worry, no one will be too harsh on Merle. I love him too much for that!  
**kisitechie: **If you died of a fluff overload on the last chapter then I must have sent you to heaven with the amount of fluff in this chapter. I hope you enjoyed it though. Thank you so much for your review and I hope to hear from you soon!  
**Kay1104: **Aww why was it depressing? Was this chapter depressing too? I hope not! It wasn't supposed to be!  
**FanFicGirl10: **Oh my god! Your review was so long and I loved it! Let's get started! A Dixon wedding! It happened! And they did get married before Merle showed up so you got your wish! I wouldn't have wanted Merle to ruin their vows so he just had to wait his turn! As for Tyreese and his group ... I'm not sure if they're going to make it into my story or not, that part hasn't shown up in the timeline. There's a spot where they could come in, but I'm not sure if I'm going to take it.  
Your theory for season four sounds amazing. It would be pretty badass! I just want Martinez to join Team Prison though. He obviously has realized that the Governor is CRAZY and he just needs to jump ship. That would make me so happy!  
**goodnightlove: **Another LONG review! I love it! I missed you! Wah!  
Okay, now that I'm done flailing. Hopefully you have stopped sobbing uncontrollably.  
And you don't have to thank me for this story. It was just a little plot bunny hopping around in my head. You guys were the ones that decided you liked it. I am the one who needs to be thanking you guys for all your support despite my various hiatuses. YOU GUYS ARE AMAZING. End of story!  
I didn't update soon and I'm so sorry for that. Please don't have left me. I promise I'm back now until the end of this story. No more long hiatuses. Updates will be coming weekly and there will be no more abandoning. Pinky promise! I hope you enjoyed this chapter dear!  
**mrskaz453: **You're back! I'm so glad! And I'm so happy that you enjoyed the last chapter and I hope that you liked this one too! (despite all the fluff.)  
Your review made me laugh so much! I loved your breakdown of all the votes! It seriously made my day to read what you thought of all of them. It was probably one of my favorite reviews ever because you just didn't hold anything back and it was amazing!  
And don't apologize! It always bothered me that the group never appreciated how much Daryl contributed to their survival too. Always has, always will. Though they're getting better at it on the show now.  
**kelizabeth13: **Aww honey! Hopefully you didn't cry during this chapter too. I honestly don't enjoy making people cry. I hope you liked this chapter as much as the other ones and thank you so much for your review!  
**Franne: **I have to admit, I cried a little bit when I wrote about Rick giving Em Lori's ring. It just felt right, but it was hard to do. I'm glad you loved the last chapter and I hope you loved this one just as much!  
**StevieB7: **I'm glad the last chapter was wonderfully fluffy and I hope that you loved this one just as much! Thank you so much for your review! I hope to hear from you soon!  
**TheSpazChik: **Aww! You don't normally read long stories? Well I'm so glad that I've managed to keep your attention for so long and to bring you on that emotional roller coaster! I get really excited when people who don't normally read long stories, or ones with OCs, etc get hooked on my story because that means I'm doing something very right.  
Thank you so much for your review and I hope that you liked this chapter too!  
**DalonegaNoquisi: **Love coming right back at you dear! I'm glad you enjoyed the last chapter!  
**Gaby de Brabant: **Yay! I was worried about you! I'm so glad you're back to reviewing! I've always loved reading your reviews! And I'm glad that I managed to surprise you with the wedding thing! I hope you liked it though ... there's been an awful lot of fluff recently and you guys know what happens when I write fluff. Something bad might be happening soon! But I can't tell you what!  
**Asalija: **Yes! Fluff is good unless you're in a zombie apocalypse or you have a writer like me in which fluff is a dead giveaway that I'm about to kill some people. (Did I just say that? Damn ... I didn't mean to drop that hint. I shall say no more!)  
And I agree! The Walking Dead writers need to get on contacting me and buying the rights to Emerson from me. Daryl needs her on the show! Bottom line! He needs her, especially after the whole Merle thing.  
I'm glad you liked the last chapter. I hope you enjoyed this one. And don't worry, as you can tell from the last line of this chapter. Merle's coming in soon!  
**bashfyl: **Aww! I'm sorry for making you teary! You're more than welcome my dear! And I hope that you liked this chapter as well!  
**DBugMom: **I'm glad you liked the last chapter and I hope that you enjoyed this one. There was more fluff and Rick's slowly getting back to normal. I'm not going to let him go crazy like in the show. And you were right about the finale ... it was okay. The only thing I truly enjoyed was the flashback to season one (Andrea's "I know how the safety works.") And the fact that Lori wasn't there anymore. Rick had found his way back to sanity. A whole hour and those were the only parts I really enjoyed. Which is sad.  
**Faith NightGrace: **Hello! New reviewer! I'm glad that you love this story so far and I hope that you liked this chapter as well! And thank you! I'm glad that you love my writing style! That's one of the best compliments you can give a writer.  
**mischieflover: **I was so worried about the M word. Seriously, I was like, "Daryl wouldn't say this." But my Daryl kind of would. And I like to think that the show Daryl would if he had a girl like Emerson on the show with him.  
Let's just face it. Having Emerson on Walking Dead would fix **SO** many problems.  
I'm glad I left you all warm and smiley after the last chapter. I hope I did the same thing with this chapter. Although with me ... fluff = bad things. So be prepared and don't say I didn't warn you. :p  
**bookelf: **Thank you! I'm glad you think I do well with fluff! And no ... I'm pretty sure everyone found the finale flat. Especially after the episode before it... with Merle. They had such a build up and then they let us down. Hopefully I didn't do that with this chapter!  
**missy7293: **Did you get a lump in your throat after this chapter too? I hope so! I might have had one when I was writing it!  
**Mione788: **Two reviews! I love you! Hello new reviewer! I'm so glad that you're enjoying this story! And I'm really happy that you're not only enjoying my writing style, but my portrayal of the show's characters as well as my OC. I think she's perfect for Daryl too! And I'm happy you enjoyed the last chapter! Fingers crossed that you liked this one as well!  
**magical origami: **And I love you for loving this story! Thanks so much for your review! And I hope you enjoyed this chapter although there were no sex scenes in it. (Maybe in an upcoming chapter though... I gotten to the point where I am neither nervous about writing them or shy so that might mean that more are coming soon. :D)  
**JerZeeSkyLine: **There was more emotional Rick in this chapter and it broke my heart! I'm glad you enjoyed the last chapter and I hope that you liked this one too! It was very fluffy and I don't think I can write any more fluff for a while. I've overdosed on it. It's an issue.  
**eh089614: **Here's your more, dear! I hope you liked it! And I'm glad that you like that I kept to my own series of events! Some people don't like when you do that, but I felt like keeping with the show's timeline would just give everything away and be kind of boring.  
And I would love to read your story and let you know what I think. Just give me a little more time to get my life under control (I've been reading college students' creative writing finals for the last week and I still have a few more to read so at the moment reading is the last thing I want to do). But I will check yours out soon!  
And that's all I've got for now! Thank you so much for your support!  
I'll be back by next Tuesday at the latest!  
Until next time, happy reading!  
Hugs and kisses,  
Chloe Jane.


	43. Chapter Forty-Two

Disclaimer: I do not own the Walking Dead, although I'm completely obsessed with it and wished I did. Emerson, however, I do own.

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Look at that!  
I said I'd be back in a week.  
And I was! SUCCESS!

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. -.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Also ... definitely having an 80s dance party in my room today.  
I love summer vacation. I'm still taking classes for my masters degree.  
But besides my internship and two nights of teaching a week... my work load has been lessened.  
Which means more time for writing, wedding planning, my niece, and joining other fandoms.  
(The fandom thing might be a problem. I recently started watching Teen Wolf and I have a story idea.)  
Do I really want to start another story?

Anyway...  
Enjoy

* * *

Chapter Forty-two:

"They'll be near here," Emerson said, pointing down to the worn map that was sitting on the table. She had drawn a circle on the map with a three mile radius around her old hometown. "That is if they're even still in the area." Rick asked her why they would be within that circle. "Because that's how they work," Emerson said with a shrug. "Glenwood is a good place for them. There are three grocery stores in the area, most of the Walkers seem to have been confined to the football field by the high school, and while this town is small there were always a lot of guns. Darren's group was never stupid, they didn't camp right on top of a good area. They camped away from it, close enough that they could get their quickly, but not where they would be seen if someone else came to the area. Even though their group seems to be bigger I doubt things have changed too much since I left the group."

"How do you know the group has gotten bigger?" Daryl asked as he joined the group, he handed a bottle of warm formula to the redhead so that she could feed the baby she was holding in her arms. "You haven't seen them since you left the group. Are you just assuming that they picked up more people?"

Emerson shrugged as she smiled down at the baby in her arms, "When Ben was talking about what happened to his team he mentioned names that I didn't recognize. There had never been a Martinez in the group while I was there. There were a couple other names I didn't know. So they must have gotten bigger. And they're operating just a bit differently now." She paused to smile down at the baby and coo quietly as the little girl started to drink the formula. "They used to do raids in large groups, almost the entire camp would go. This team was smaller, like they were scouting for something. And Darren wasn't in it. They might have new leadership now."

"So what makes you think that even with new leadership they'd still stay within this circle?" Rick asked.

"I'm not totally sure," Emerson said, shaking her head. "But like I said before. Glenwood is a good storehouse of supplies. The fact that it wasn't completely emptied means that whatever group has raided the town plans to continue coming back. And though I'm not entirely sure, I figure that it's the best place to start looking. At least, as good a place as any. What's the harm in starting there?"

Rick shrugged, "No harm. I just don't want to get anyone's hopes up and then not find the man." Emerson thought that Rick was talking about Daryl, but when she glanced up she noticed that the leader's eyes were focused on her. He was worried about her getting her hopes up. She shrugged her shoulders as if to silently say that she didn't know why he thought she'd get her hopes up. Rick watched her for a moment before he signaled toward the hallway, "Can I talk to you for a moment?" he asked the redhead. She nodded and gestured that Rick should lead the way into the hallway. Rick led her all the way through the building to the quad outside where they could talk without any fear of being overheard.

"What's up?" Emerson asked Rick quietly as she continued to feed the baby. Rick still hadn't even touched the baby. But at least now he was looking at the small girl. "Are you okay?"

Rick waved off her concern, he watched the redhead again, his eyes landing on the way the sunlight was catching on Lori's engagement ring. "I just wanted to figure this out," Rick muttered, shaking his head as if Emerson was some mystery that he would never be able to understand. "Why are you trying to find Merle? Why is this so important to you?" Emerson shrugged quietly, she wasn't sure how to explain what this meant to her. "What's going on in that head of yours?" Rick asked her, refusing to take her silent answer. He knew that there was a reason for her behavior and he wasn't going to give up until he knew the answer.

"Have you ever just had a bad feeling?" Emerson asked him quietly. "I'm not about to claim that I'm a psychic or something. But everyone has gut feelings every once in a while. I used to get them in Afghanistan a lot. Just weird feelings, like something bad was going to happen. Sometimes something bad did happen, more often than not it didn't. My friends used to tell me that I was just getting those feelings because I was in the middle of the desert in a war zone. I guess the same thing could be said about now. Maybe I'm just nervous. But I can't shake it."

"What kind of bad feeling?" Rick asked.

"I don't know," Emerson said, more out of habit than out of not knowing. "I guess it started after Lori," she whispered, still not sure if she should even mention the woman's name to her husband. "I'm sorry," she apologized quickly before she continued her answer. "It's just that we lost her and we shouldn't have. She should still be here right now. And if we can lose her we can lose anyone." She paused again and looked up at Rick, silently pleading with him to understand what she was saying without making her say it. He nodded, he got it.

"You're worried that if we can lose Lori that something could happen to you?" he asked her, his voice quiet.

The redhead nodded, "And I just," she paused and shook her head. "I don't want Daryl to be alone if something happens. I don't want him to be alone."

"His brother isn't going to replace you," Rick pointed out. "Don't forget, I know him too. And as much as family matters to Daryl, Merle isn't going to replace you. Daryl won't get over losing you just because his brother is around telling him to man up."

"But Merle will make it easier for him," Emerson argued. "Maybe he won't make Daryl get over it right away, but he'll help. Just by being here. Besides," she looked away from the older man for a moment. "I might be crazy. This feeling I have could be nothing at all. And I'll be fine, but if we don't find Merle, if we don't try to get him back a part of Daryl will always be broken. He'll always be left wondering what happened to his brother, where he is now, and what would have happened if they were together. Daryl will never be whole again until he finds Merle. And I can't," she paused again and shook her head.

"No," Rick told her, he wasn't going to let her go until she got this out. "You can't what?"

"I love him," Emerson told him simply. Rick scoffed as if to say that he would hope that she loved him, she was married to him after all. Emerson smiled at the older man and nodded, "I love him, but it hurts. Because I love him it hurts me to know that he's hurting, that he's broken, that he isn't whole. I can try to fix it, but I will never be able to fill the Merle sized hole that was left when you guys lost him in Atlanta. And there's already so much pain in this world, so much stress and hurt, and anything I can do to lessen some of his," she paused. "I have no choice. I'll do it. That crazy man has made me fall in love with him. And now I need to spend the rest of my life doing everything I can to make him the happiest he can be."

Rick stared at the young girl and found himself wondering how these two people, his friends, who had met a little less than three months ago had it all figured out. The two hadn't known each other when they decided to take a chance on one another, they had next to nothing in common, there was an almost twenty year age difference between Daryl and the redhead. But they were perfect for each other, they understood each other, and they understood what it meant to love someone else. Even now in the wake of Lori's death Rick could admit that he and his wife had never had a perfect marriage. Sure, they had loved each other and cared about one another, but they had never understood each other or cared about the other person the way Daryl and Emerson did. He was jealous of them. The world was going to shit, it would never be the same, but somehow these two had found a way to not only make things work, but they thrived. In less than three months they had a healthier relationship than Lori and Rick had ever had, even after twenty years together.

Emerson stood there, silent under Rick's thoughtful gaze for a full minute before she spoke. "Can I ask you a question, Rick?" she asked him softly. Rick nodded silently, prompting her to ask her question without responding out loud. The young redhead bit her lip nervously for a moment before she nodded and lifted her gaze to his so that she was looking him steadily in the eyes. "Why haven't you held Judith yet?" she asked him. Rick's eyes widened in surprise, that had been the last question he had expected to hear from her. She shot him an apologetic look before she continued, "I know that it's probably none of my business, but this little girl lost her mother and her father can barely look at her, let alone interact with her. That isn't a good environment for a baby to grow up in. And you owe it to her and to Lori to step up and be her father."

Rick stared at the young woman in front of him for a moment before he answered honestly, "I'm not sure if I am her father," he told her, his voice defeated. Emerson raised her eyebrows at him and silently waited for him to continue. Rick sighed, "I don't know how much you know about mine and Lori's past. But before all this happened our marriage had hit a snag. And then I got shot and was in the hospital when the Walkers came. My best friend, Shane, got Lori and Carl out of the city and left me behind. He took care of them, he saved their lives, and he fell in love with her. Before I found them Lori and Shane had an affair. She didn't tell me about it until we got to Hershel's farm and she found out she was pregnant. But I knew. I had forgiven her and she told me that the baby was mine, but there's no way to know for sure." He looked down at the small baby in Emerson's arms before he looked away, "I won't get attached to her because she might not be mine."

Emerson was silent for a moment, thinking, "You know what I think?" she asked the older man quietly. "I think that it doesn't matter. Lori might not have known who the actual father of this baby was, she may have had doubts. Jude could be Shane's baby. But Lori chose you. She chose you to be the father. It doesn't matter who the sperm donor was, that doesn't matter. What matters is who Lori wanted to raise this baby with. And that was you. You can't go back on that decision just because you're scared, just because she isn't here anymore. Because you know who is here?" She glanced down at the baby in her arms. "Jude is here. Your daughter is here and if you don't start acting like her father you will regret it." She stood silent for a moment, letting her words sink in before she shifted the baby in her arms. "Hold her?" she asked the older man. "Just for a moment, that's all I ask."

Rick shook his head at the redhead, "I wouldn't know how to," he argued even as his arms shifted so that he would be able to hold the small child when Emerson put the girl in his hands.

"You held Carl when he was a baby didn't you?" Emerson asked as she gently placed Judith in Rick's arms. "Little girls aren't much different, with the added bonus that they don't pee on you when you're changing their diapers." Rick laughed at that as he looked down at the baby in his arms. The girl looked up at him for a moment, her brow furrowed in confusion as if she was trying to figure out who he was before she started to cry.

"She doesn't like me!" he said as he tried to hand the baby back to Emerson, but the redhead stepped away from him, forcing him to keep hold of the child.

"She doesn't know you," she said softly. "That's all. You just have to calm her down." She paused for a moment, "She really likes Hey Jude," she said softly. "Sing with me." Rick shook his head, he had a horrible singing voice, but Emerson shot him a look that clearly said she expected him to sing with her.

"Hey Jude," they sang together softly, both huddled around the baby. "Don't make it bad, take a sad song and make it better. Remember, to let her into your heart, then you can start, to make it better."

"It's working," Rick announced, his voice quiet and timid, as if he was afraid that if he stopped singing the baby would start crying again. Emerson smiled and nodded as she reached out and grabbed Rick's hand so that she could hold it in front of the baby. They both watched as Judith reached her tiny hand up and wrapped her fingers tightly around Rick's pointer finger. She withdrew her hand and smiled at the two of them.

"Hey Jude," they continued to sing softly. "Don't be afraid. You were made to go out and get her. The minute, you let her under your skin. Then you'll begin, to make it better."

"I think she likes it because it has her name in the song," Emerson whispered softly as she pulled away from the man and his child. She placed a soft, comforting hand on Rick's shoulder when he made a noise of protest at her withdrawal. "You two need some time to get to know each other," she told him quietly. "I'll be inside if you need me." Rick didn't argue with her, and when she gave the two of them a final look Rick wasn't even looking at her, he was staring down at the baby as if he couldn't believe that the small girl existed.

She was still smiling when she walked back into the common room and was greeted by Daryl, Ben, Maggie, and Glenn who were making plans about how they would start searching the area surrounding Glenwood for Merle. Daryl looked up and smiled at her, "Where's Ass-Kicker?" he asked, his brow furrowing slightly when he noticed that the baby wasn't with the redhead.

Emerson's smile grew even bigger. "She's outside," she said softly. "She and Rick are getting to know each other." She said it so quietly that it took everyone a moment before the words sunk in.

Glenn let out a whoop of happiness and Daryl nodded approvingly, "It's about damn time," he muttered before he looped his arm around Emerson's shoulders and pulled her closer to him so that he could press a hard kiss against her forehead. "That's all you," he whispered in her ear.

Emerson shook her head and shrugged, "I didn't really do anything," she told him softly. "I just gave him the baby and didn't allow him to give her back to me. There's nothing special or amazing about that." She glanced up at Daryl, a happy sparkle in her eyes.

Daryl shook his head at the redhead who was still cuddled against his side, "Can't you just take a compliment?" he asked her softly. Emerson shrugged her shoulders again and a pink blush rose on her cheeks. Daryl chuckled and shook his head, wondering if the redhead knew how much blushes turned him on. She bit her lip under his gaze, she definitely knew what they did.

"So," Emerson said a moment later, clearly ready to change the subject. "How are we going to go find Merle? What's the plan, guys?"

-.-.-.-.-.-

"I missed you today," Emerson whispered later that night when Daryl climbed into their bed next to her. Daryl chuckled at her and pointed out that they had spent most of the day together, it was impossible for her to miss him. Emerson rolled her green eyes and allowed her hands to slip under his shirt and rest on the warm skin of his chest, Daryl smiled when he felt the cool metal of the engagement ring against his skin. "Yes," she admitted, "I see you all day, but that doesn't mean that I get to do what I want with you. We've been married for a day and nothing has changed." She pouted playfully, "We didn't even get a honeymoon."

"Why do we need a honeymoon?" Daryl joked as he spread his arms out on either side of the girl. "Look around us, we're in fucking paradise." Emerson laughed at him and shook her head as she rolled onto his chest. Daryl chuckled again and wrapped his arms tightly around her as she buried her face in his shirt. "Are you happy?" he asked her, his voice quiet. Emerson lifted her head, her chin resting on his chest and looked up at him, her eyebrows raised. "Are you happy?" Daryl asked her again. "With everything that's going on? The world we live in? I guess despite all that. Are you happy with me?"

Emerson stared up at him for almost a full minute, her expression unreadable. For a moment Daryl was struck with the ridiculous fear that she was about to tell him that she wasn't. But that fear disappeared when she surged up and pressed her lips against his in a deep kiss. "Of course I'm happy," she told him. Daryl muttered something about convenience and Emerson sat up, her legs slipping on either side of his chest so that she was straddling him. "Daryl Dixon, if you think for one moment that I'm the type of girl that would be with someone out of convenience then you don't know me at all." She paused for a moment and looked away from him with a slight shake of her head. "I love you," she reassured him when she turned back to him. "I don't know why you have such a hard time believing that. I'm not with you because we're in the middle of an apocalypse. I'm not with you because you can protect me. I'm not with you because I'm lonely. I'm with you because you are a _good_ man. I'm with you because you make me happier than I've ever been. I'm with you because you make me a stronger, better person than I was before I met you. So don't you dare suggest that I'm only with you because you're convenient. To be honest, you are probably the least convenient thing in the world sometimes," she joked.

Daryl sighed and lifted himself up onto his elbows so that he could kiss the girl again. "Thank you," he told her quietly, his voice a whisper. "I promise that one of these days I won't need you to reassure me all the time."

"I know," Emerson agreed quietly as she settled back down on top of his chest, her ear resting just above his heart so that she could listen to it beat. She was silent for a moment, her fingers tapping out the rhythm against his chest. "Tell me something that I don't know about you," she whispered a moment later.

Daryl sighed, silently thinking about what he could tell her. There weren't many big things about his life that she didn't already know. Just a whole bunch of little things that felt unimportant. "My mom used to make me peanut butter sandwiches whenever I was having a bad day," he told her softly. "They were horrible, I don't know how you can mess up a peanut butter sandwich, but that woman did. But I ate every one she ever made. Ma, didn't," he paused and shook his head, he tried not to look down at the redhead wrapped in his arms. "Ma wasn't the type to make things. She didn't do dinner, or breakfast, or birthday cakes. Only these horrible peanut butter sandwiches. So even though they tasted like shit I would eat them. After she died I tried to make one for myself, but it just wasn't the same. You know how people joke about how the secret ingredient in their food was love? It was kind of like that with my mama. It wasn't good, but it was made with love and shit." Emerson was quiet in his arms, she didn't say anything and for a moment Daryl was convinced that she had fallen asleep before she turned her head to the side and pressed a quiet kiss against his t-shirt covered chest. He tilted his head down so that he could nuzzle the top of her head. "Your turn," he whispered into her hair. "Please let it be something happier than my story."

Emerson nodded and thought for a moment. "One year my family took this trip up to Vermont in the middle of the winter. I don't even remember why, my parents weren't from up north, we had no particular interest in snow, none of us skied or anything. But they rented this cabin up in the Green Mountains for like two weeks. I was sixteen and I was so mad at them, the internet was this new thing that basically consumed my life and I could not believe that I wasn't going to be able to get on AIM and instant message my friends." She scoffed and shook her head, laughing at her younger self. "It's funny how back then that was my biggest fear. There wasn't even a television in the cabin. I was determined that this was going to be the most boring two weeks of my life. It snowed the first night we were there. These huge, white, fluffy flakes that stuck to the ground the second they landed and it was gorgeous." She turned her head, tilting it so that she could look up at Daryl, studying him for a moment. "Those two weeks were probably the happiest I have ever been in my life. Nothing else has ever really come close to that." She paused again and smiled softly. "Until you. Until this feeling, what we're doing right now. This is my new version of Vermont snow."

"Well ain't you a romantic," Daryl teased as Emerson turned her head to the side so that she could press a kiss to his chest. "Who knew that Emerson Phillips could be a sweetheart."

"That's Emerson Dixon to you," Emerson argued back her tone both teasing and happy. She smiled up at him for a moment before she turned her head and nuzzled her face into his stomach. "We're going to be okay, right?" she asked him softly. "The whole group? We're going to be fine."

Daryl sighed, he honestly hated that question because there was no real way to answer it. He couldn't promise Emerson that they were all going to live long, natural lives. He couldn't promise her that this time next week everyone would still be there. He couldn't make any promises to her, not really. He sighed and tightened his arms around her shoulders. "I promise you that I'm going to do everything in my power to keep you safe and happy for the rest of your life," he told her, his voice cracking under his conviction.

Emerson must have understood what that really meant because she nodded against his chest and pressed a kiss to it through his shirt, "That's good enough for me," she breathed quietly. She was silent for a few minutes and Daryl was sure that she had fallen asleep, but then she spoke again, so quiet that he had to strain to hear her. "We're going to find your brother," she told him. "I don't care what it takes or how long it takes to find him, but we will. We're going to find him and then we're going to bring him back home. Though," she paused, "I hope you won't be mad if I kick him in the balls a few times on the way back here."

Daryl couldn't stop the chuckle that rose in his throat at her stipulation. "Of course I wouldn't mind that, Em. I would be concerned if you didn't want to hit him. I want to hit him."

He could hear the grin in her voice when she replied, "You can hit him too, I won't mind."

* * *

Author's note:  
Man I'm nice to you guys. That's what? Four chapters without drama or Walkers?  
Either I'm utterly amazing or I'm gearing up for some major shit coming up in a few chapters.  
Maybe it's a little bit of both, hmm?  
Anyway, thank you so much for stopping by to read this chapter!  
Special thanks goes to: _BellaBloodrayne, Cookiedow, derderxp, wiccan-jessica, Little Coroner, _and _Payton918 _who added this story to their **Favorites List.  
**And to: _elisemmbb, Cookiedow, Lulu14168, wiccan-jessica, Little Coroner, ChooseJoy, sketchwars, _and _Payton918 _who added it to their **Alerts List.  
**But as always the **BIGGEST** of **SPECIAL THANKS** goes to those of you who **REVIEWED** on the last chapter:  
**DarylDixon'sLover: **I'm glad you enjoyed the wedding. The vows were a b*tch to write, but I think they turned out pretty good. I hope that you enjoyed this chapter as well!  
**FanFicGirl10: **I'm glad you enjoyed the last chapter. I was honestly worried about the amount of fluff in their wedding chapter, but everyone really seemed to enjoy it. I have to admit, I think even I needed some fluff in this story (especially since I know what's coming). Now, as for when they find Merle, he's not going to be mean (although he will be his usual surly self and there will be some adjustment time considering what he did to Emerson.) But I can't make the man evil, I love him too much for that.  
**Franne: **I'm so happy that you enjoyed the last chapter and I hope that you liked this one too. I don't think I will ever be able to top the cuteness of the wedding chapter, but I did continue with the trend of no Walkers, at least for a tiny bit longer.  
**JerZeeSkyLine:** The tears were everywhere? Oh no! That wasn't supposed to happen! As for the "sweet, fluffy, awesome wedding vows," what can I say? I had just written the third draft of my vows when I got to this chapter. Although, I have to admit, I think their vows are better than mine for my actual wedding. I might have to steal some of them and just not tell Ryan that part of my vows came from my fanfiction. Although, knowing him even if I did tell him that he would just laugh at me. Anyway, there will be major finding Merle development in the next chapter! And I hope that you enjoyed this one!  
**wiccan-jessica: **Aww thank you! I'm so glad that you've been enjoying this story so far and I hope that you liked this one as well. The way I figured it was that I had to create my own timeline for it to be interesting. No one would want to read a copy of season three with an OC just randomly dropped in there. So I had to go off and do my own thing. And I'm glad you like Emerson, I'm pretty attached to her too. And thank you! I'm really excited about the wedding!  
**xXMegers17Xx: **I'm so glad that you enjoyed the last chapter and I hope that you liked this one as well. Even if it wasn't as sweet and fluffy as the other one. I'm setting things up for the end of the story; like nothing in this chapter will seem particularly important until you get to the last chapter and then you're going to be like, _oh shit! That's why she put that in there!_ And trust me, when Merle finds out about the wedding ... it's going to be fun.  
**mischieflover: **Me and my fluff. I have this reader who has read every single story that I've put up on this site. And she sent me a message in which she asked why I could never just write a love story where nothing ever went wrong and I didn't attack my reader's feels. And I responded with, "Because that wouldn't be any fun." (I think she thinks I'm evil.)  
I'm glad you were on a happy wedding high after the last chapter. I had so much fun writing that chapter, especially Beth, because let's be honest - it may be the middle of a zombie apocalypse, but she's still a teenage girl who would probably be ecstatic at the thought of a wedding. And the vows! I'm so glad you enjoyed them! As I was saying to JerZeeSkyLine I think they're better than the vows I wrote for my own wedding. I might have to steal some of them and not tell the husband-to-be that they were originally written for my Walking Dead fanfiction.  
I hope you liked this chapter too! You were safe for a bit longer from what I have planned for you guys.  
**DBugMom: **Oh no! Don't cry! You weren't supposed to cry! It was supposed to be sweet, and fluffy, and happy! But not tear inducing! But I'm glad you enjoyed it! The vows seemed to be a really big hit with you guys! Maybe I should change my job. Instead of teaching I should hire myself out for vow writing. Spend some time getting to know the couple and then write their vows for them. Hmmm ... I bet there's a market of lazy grooms out there who would gladly hire me.  
Anyway, back to the story! Don't worry, I'm definitely going to keep going with this story, though based on my timeline it looks like there's going to be around five more chapters. (No less, maybe a few more). But after the story is complete, I might be persuaded to write a sequel. I'm not sure, but maybe. I could see that happening.  
You're more than welcome for the last chapter and I hope that you liked this one as well.  
**missy7293: **I swear I'm not purposefully trying to make you cry! I'm glad you liked the last chapter and I hope that you liked this one too! (I would have worn the heels too, not gonna lie.)  
**Guest:** I'm glad that you liked the last chapter! You have no idea how happy it makes me to hear that Daryl's vows were "spot on." The cussing had to go in there, because that's just who he is. But while I was writing them I was like, "shit, how am I going to de-mush this! Daryl can't start crying in the middle of a wedding! That's not who he is!" So I'm glad I kept him in character. I hope that you liked this chapter as well, we're going to be finding Merle very soon!  
**Gaby de Brabant:** Hello!  
I'm glad you enjoyed the last chapter, even though marriages in the middle of a story makes you worry. In all honesty, it's not pessimistic, at least not in my stories, it's realistic - I give you guys happy, fluffy moments and then I steal them away with Walker attacks and possible death. (Mwahahahaha) but I didn't do that with this chapter, you guys were safe. I hope that you enjoyed this chapter and I'll see you back here soon.  
And that's all I've got for now!  
Thank you guys, so much, for all your support. You're pretty amazing.  
I'll be back sometime before next Tuesday with the next chapter.  
Until next time, happy reading!  
Hugs and kisses,  
Chloe Jane.


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